If you do most of your shopping at Home Depot, make sure you have your Pro account activated and tied into your credit card.

A better method is to be added as an authorized user on a well aged credit card account that has low usage and perfect payment history.

I am definitely doing some of my numbers to see where we stand financially and see where we could improve. ( credit card debt, school loans, etc. ) how long after u decided to REI did u you purchase your first home?

Section 8 requires that you accept a "median market rent" - which equated to 70% of true market. 

This is especially true when factoring in appreciation.

I had a feeling this option was too good to be true, at least the way I was thinking about using it.

If it is a true C/D class property S8 is a option knowing there will be issues with both tenants and inspections.

This was true for mine except that I had the unique experience of having two first deals... meaning we raised enough money to fund two deals in the same city and jumped at it.

@Isaiah Jackson Everything Stuart said is true!

One might argue that the Fundrise investment has a better risk profile which is true from a number of assets standpoint, but not necessarily true from a quality of manager standpoint because as many have mentioned I have no idea who's running those deals.