Most investors who scale end up with some combination of all of it (hold some, flip some, refinance some, trade up to larger properties). 

@David Haynes,I live by 1 golden rule-- only take advice by people who you would happily trade shoes with! 

I also inventoried the "tools of the trade" and what I needed in order to do the job. 

Hard to get anyone to come out for less than $100 for a service call and typically it's about $150-$250 depending upon the trade (plumber, electrical, etc..)

The third way you can gain confidence is to buy a small number of shares in different publicly traded companies.

Think of GOLDHigh quality assets also can be traded in most currencyHigh quality assets also protect you from from inflation.

All exchanges were direct exchanges where two parties swap properties and each assumes the other's debt.In the direct exchange, the rule was "trade up and mortgage up" to keep the exchange fully tax deferred.

Ethics is based on industry standards, acceptable practice, law and public expectations, it is NOT an opinion based on ones belief of business practices, religious or even for that much of their moral position.You have no idea of how aspects of the Fair Trade Act involves real estate, how it is applied or other laws relating to agency law or contract law, if you did, accepting facts you're attitude would be different. 

Open up a trade account with them.  

After meeting people that have been in the business for a while you could think of trading your services for a little mentorship, a nice win win.