I think that's the conclusion I came to in actual the post, but I probably should have reworded the title.Either way, surrounding yourself with as many high integrity, high performance players is definitely the best way to succeed in real estate investing.  

The big players do exactly this all the time, the larger scale simply involves a bigger team.

Banks are paying from a fraction of 1% to maybe 1% or more on a CD, you can offer a much higher return.Secondly, you need to brush up on capital gains tax code so that you can accurately inform the seller of the tax consequences. 

I'm a former baseball player with the Texas Rangers and I graduated from Mississippi State University.

If you can't stomach the thought of making mistakes and losing money, then real estate investing likely isn't in your cards (or really any other type of investing besides maybe CD's or government bonds).What you should focus on is limiting your losses to be significantly less than your gains and learning from your mistakes to gain experience.If you run into road blocks, there are plenty of people on here to offer assistance no matter what direction you go.

The alternative for the smaller turn key player is to buy for example 1 or 2 properties for the full price and have all the equity and risk. (1 property vacant is  50% of the income. ) These advantages mean having less direct control of the properties- for some this is a minus, for others assuming the provider (Holdfolio) is good, - just what they are looking for.Perhaps @Sterling White could jump in and elaborate.Disclaimer: I am not associated with Holdfolio and hold no investments with them.

There are a number of ways that a Crafty Bastard local lender working in conjunction with your Crafty Bastard CPA (this is a team effort, your CPA and lender need to be team players or you need to fire & replace one of them) can still help you minimize what you pay to the IRS, while keeping you qualified for your purchase power goals, without breaking any laws or rules.

I am a working musician (conga player in photo) and would like to communicate with an investor concerning property locating as a service.My goal is to learn Real Estate flipping metod(s) and investment and earn enough to purchase a retirement home.Terrence

Is there anyone out there who can shine the light on what's going on in the area and who may be some of the key players? 

It's unlikely that the little old person seller/lender could take that lump sum payout, put it in a CD or anything else comparably safe, and get more than they were getting from that loan.So a pro and a con:Pro: Better regular payout than a similarly safe-from-default instrument, like a CD, would pay (everyone here knows that a CD is just you lending money to a bank, right?