Hello everyone,I am looking into buying and holding as a means to assist with my future retirement, and possibly to help fund my childrens' education. 

I'm new to real-estate investing and I'm trying to understand the difference between the different forms of investingI want to play this RE game for the long-term and have the portfolio benefit from appreciation, depreciation, tax-free cashing-out, leverage using low interest rates, cashflow to cover the expenses.Here's my understanding of eachDirect RE- Full ownership / control of when to sell- Can leverage & deleverage as you want- Work involved to maintain property; But can hire a property manager to assist- Can provide cashflow to cover expenses + CoC return- Provides hard collateral / security for the money you put in- Tax benefits - depreciation, phantom appreciation, interest deduction Majority Partnership- Form partnership where you are majority owner with 2+ other people (with more capital input) - Can provide benefits of direct RE on controlSyndication- Passive investor / accredited - Less work- Access to commercial RE which you can't get otherwise- No security / collateral for your stake; Can loose everything- No different from investing in a business- Already leveraged returns; You don't control how asset is structured- Depreciation benefit passed through K1; But no benefit of 1031Crowdfunding- Low minimums- Already leveraged returns- Can be equity or debt based; Equity stake has some tax benefits through K1- No security / collateral and everything can disappear without recourseIs this correct? 

An experienced investment agent will be able to assist you with the majority of these steps, but it will ultimately fall on you to follow through with them.As Jesse pointed out you'll need a few people on your team, I would have your Realtor assist you in finding the following:1.)

Are there any questions I can assist you with? 

Is this something the GC would assist with/plan?

And ultimately assist you in the process.

@Harra GuniWhen we arrived here to Huntsville, we met an investor friendly realtor who assisted us with finding our family home.

It was about tips on finding the right people near me to ask for assistance and opinions on raising money for a commercial property.

We didn't want to move up, so the bank offered larger than typical seller assist to meet us at our purchase price.

I've only had a couple of years away from finance where I managed a musician, but besides that I've worked with people and lending so if anyone needs any advice in that regards i'm happy to assist, and excited to build with this amazing network of doers!