You are doing them a favor, least that is my opinion.

The best way to attract those agents is to offer flat-fee (they pay a flat fee per transaction but keep their entire commission) or VERY favorable commission splits.

Not sure what you'll get in San Antonio with 1000 post cards, that's a pretty hot market, but if you mail out some volume you are going to get busy pretty fast.You should also be working with a realtor you can send some business to for money or favors.

I did just want to add that most people here on BP are in favor of getting a mentor , it is just that many don't think you should pay for it.

I continue to favor rentals geared towards E-5s near AF bases.We have been going slow-and-steady buying real estate since we were both E-3s--now I have the illustrious rank of Mom and DH recently made E-8.

If you have bad credit, investors won't look at that as a favorable track record, especially in the absence of successful previous investment deals.Perhaps a partner can bring the credit and financing that you cannot bring, and you bring the deal flow.

My fear with the older neighborhoods is that even if you buy a totally rehabbed house, which could have lower capex, will the area remain in favor with tenants, or will it start declining, etc.?

I got my Ashburn house through the Homepath program with Fannie Mae which also favors owner occupancy.

If so, I'm going to advise this new math grad to stay away from finance since he tends to not like probability and statistics, he tends to favor numerical analysis and computer science more.Also what I'm getting from your post is that math in finance pretty much requires a PhD since the basic analytical tools required involve concepts beyond most math BA's, is that fairly accurate?

Unit mix varies by neighborhood, but generally NYC favors 1 BR - most projects I've seen are about 60% 1 BR, 30% 2 BR and 10% studio/3BR.