We have a pretty large Board of Realtors here and they have an extensive library of books.

Is there a how-to book that explains this?

This is a pretty fair trade for their time.keep after it, read books, read BP, get to your local investor meetings.

Is there a particular source - book, blog, set of posts here on BP, or mentor that I should look into so I can see the panorama of options and how they each function?

The first piece of advice I'd offer is reading a few books on the topic and visiting this area of the site and reading EVERYTHING you can: http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12-starting-outHopefully a more experience investor will come along and answer the things I've miss.

My approach has been and will continue to be a buy and hold strategy spanning core and value added investment approaches.I found BP through Brandon's website Real Estate In Your Twenties (great site Brandon), which I visited while searching for REI book reviews.I'm looking forward to contributing to the community and tapping the wealth of knowledge offered up on the site.Paul

Seems folks like for me to write a book for every sentence covering what should be assumed common sence.

There are other contingencies as well (sorry I don't want to write a book here).Option period's length and amount are also negotiable.

I credit a lot of where I am now to Rich Dad, Poor Dad and other types of books.

Sib Bahjat I would suggest reading the book "Landlording on Autopilot".