the best gift I give the investors we loan money to is the ability to say ...Thank you for doing business with us....now here is a gift of a resource that will blow your mind...You need to be a part of this site...   

Pets (or humans) can always do more damage than that but the market in your area may not bear much more.

I also got started with the podcasts and found them to be a great resource to learn about RE.I think BP has all the resources to get one started and be successful in RE.Wish you all the very best in your investing journey.

Seems like a great option but as a buy and hold investor not sure how I get around the "earned income" requirement... any thoughts or resources in the RI / MA area would be greatly appreciated! 

You have all the education and resources here to get your real estate investing career started.

Do you have any best resources for someone without MLS access to find the number of homes sold over the past year in a given area?

I do have a clause stating that I can back out of the deal if I'm not able to assign the contract, but I kinda think that ruins your reputation and I really just want to exhaust all my resources and get the deal done.

BiggerPockets forum has been a great resource so far!

It, and you all, are invaluable resources.

Also, another thing to consider is an appraiser is human, sometimes they can't really justify a big jump in value in a short amount of time, regardless what the house is, in their mind, they might subliminally ding you a bit, because it just appraised much lower, and especially after 2007-09, appraisers have their back to watch, appraisers were going crazy at that time doing exactly this, so sometimes it pays to wait a little while just for that reason as well.