Sounds like you were played-some by them, some by yourself.

They get together and play Kiyosaki's Cashflow game and sometimes talk real estate as well. 

The previous owner mentioned to me that she had wanted to take the tree down but this same neighbor didn't want it taken down since his kids played around it. 

I’m starting to look at duplexes in my area as I work on fixing my credit score and I hope to get into something by the end of the year or beginning of next year.I look forward to being more active in these forums!

I'm in the process of evaluating Fall River MA, Franklin NH, Skowhegan ME, and the general Southern NH and Southern ME areas as locations on the rise - and am very interested in learning more from investors active in these areas!

@Delshon Chestnut, there are several experienced CPAs who are active participants on ths forum.

If you're playing the appreciation game, there is a lot of risk buying now.

No unfortunately not, if your main source of income is active real estate investing and doing numerous deals per year, then its considered income.

@Damian Williams  I'm also new to the real estate investing world and have found the local REIA (real estate investment association) a good place to begin networking activities (per @Alex Tahnat 's suggestion above).

@Ryan Stevens You can get a bridge loan or some other short term financing but you are going to play a lot for it and they are all going to require at 70% LTV so you would need $75k on top of paying upwards of 10% interest on it.Maybe @Andrew Postell has a product he could help you with.