Hi Charles Worth & Marty Smith:You both seem to have a very good "grip" on the internal workings of a very broad range of Private Lenders. 

An overly broad title.Take some time and learn what different options you have under this broad title, and then learn when and where to use which strategy. 

Young people seem to have done the best with broad stock exposure and viewing a downturn as a "sale" and just keep on the 401k investment routine and not stress about paper losses for money you don't need for 20+ years.You could also cut back your 401k contibutions to just get the match and save for a down payment on RE....just don't spend it!

My approach right now is very broad trying to keep my options open but I should condense my search and focus on specific things. thanks for the help!

My spouse and I save well over 6 figure every year and invest that in the stock market, mainly index funds, broadly diversified.

just to tag on most coastal markets your flips are 350 and up.. sky is the limit.we do some In Charleston SC that are 450 to 750k.in Portland 400k to 2 mil  is common.. but our market over 1 mil is softening.I am starting a 2 mil spec in Charleston next month.. but its in the historic downtown south of broad area.. being a very unique area with VERY limited inventory for me I will risk it but usually I want to stick to just above the median..

So the 1.5-2% test meets requirements for houses on the high end of the spectrum for repairs.

@Matt Finneseth Your question is pretty broad.

For trustee sale tracking were making updates every 5-15 minutes the day of sale, at the other end of the spectrum is is full county assessor updates which are typically twice a year, but may be once a year - which is due to the county, rather than us (though we do update owner info upon each transfer, so for important changes it is updated daily).

"Money with no brains" is a broad statement.