Literally something for everyone and also for different investing strategies.

I put in thousands more than that of my own money to fund the rehab costs and monthly holding costs, but that was just the money I had to pay to receive a clean title and get title insurance. 

Most seem to say they don't do it, and I literally had one tell me today he wouldn't do it because he thought it was a bad idea since I don't have a close relationship with this person (we didn't go into detail like anything from above).Aside from the promissory note, I'm looking for some expert guidance on what I should do to vet this individual and what type of information I should collect. 

We literally have clients everywhere.

While the margins are not what they were a couple years ago people are still making very comfortable livings making hundreds of thousands a year flipping here.  

Take that 3 to 7 thousand and put into into an appreciating asset....not some slick suited dude that charges beginners thousands of dollars to sit there and dream, while he tells you all about how great he is as his staff runs your credit card in the back room.       

Literally just give me the properties.

Keep in mind you will be borrowing tens of tens of tens (and sometimes hundreds) of thousands of dollars over a 30 year period.  

Don't bury yourself in a transaction that may cost you tens of thousands of dollars to recover from your first time out.

Every time a new listing hits the MLS, it's literally a matter of hours before the first offer rolls in (and several more after it), which makes it incredibly difficult to get your offer accepted and beat the competition.