It's always critical to do your own extensive due diligence on the sponsor, market, and deal before investing.

Again, forgive me if you completely understand this, but I've said it many times on this forum before (and will probably repeat it again) - language is important (in the legal arena it's critical) and BP is a very large learning forum, so we must be careful not to instill any inaccurate or misguiding information that could steer somebody towards an erroneous perception.

I wasn't trying to be critical.

Welcome to BP community @Catherine Kahle  It is a great place to meet new friends and learn about various aspects of real estate and more.

Welcome to BP community @Becky Shuta  It is a great place to meet new friends and learn about various aspects of real estate and more.

I can't speak on the legal aspect of it.

You may want to dig deeper, inspect more thoroughly, and reconsider the comparables - a very unreliable judgment of the considered property.Surface numbers can be deceiving.I also strongly recommend becoming much more familiar with owner financing, especially the legal aspects, before you ever consider using owner financing.

It is critical to vette the ground team..

If you know of anyone looking to get involved in real estate investing and is dedicated to learning every aspect from the ground up (yes, you will learn how to do everything starting from the worst assignments: sweep, paint, paint a fence, mow a lawn, replace a toilet, tile a wall, handle tenant concerns, how to deal with police if there's a problem at the property you own, and sexier jobs like how to complete a full gut rehab on a historic property,analyze deals, manage projects, partner with local political and community members, and survive with a smile on your face the next day...basically I train my people to continually replace the person ahead of them) AND they are willing to move to the Midwest.

Don't quit your job. especially when you are starting its good to have a solid W-2 to fall back on in times of capital stress and lenders want to see that. save save save. the most important aspect is buying that first property to catapult you into the REI world. sure you can wholesale or get a license to sell RE, but honestly I think the market is pretty saturated with these positions.