Ideally a company that can provide you with strategic advice and a tactical plan while “holding your hand” throughout the investing process.Always, always, always ask for recent client references.Treat your investing like a business.Take action!

Plus I have a lot of strategic alliances that buy and sell homes with my direction so I am involved in a lot of deals silently.

You are in a position too to do the briks and mortor and to get your feet wet in another aspect of real estate, buying notes or making small short term loans.

Pricing a home to sell is a very important aspect, since waiting on the market means you continue paying the mortgage interest, taxes and insurance.

If you have no knowledge of the industry, the legal, economic and financial aspects of real estate you'll never make as much as you could have.

If you lose your job, or quit, you have 30 days to find a new one or leave the country.Not saying it's not a great country (I've heard lots of good things) or that there aren't good aspects of the economy and political system, but it's well known that a major part of the reason the economy is so good there, and the reason there is so much new construction is that a decent percentage of the workforce are practically enslaved laborers brought into the country as indentured servants (given a little bit of money and then being forced to spend decades working for pennies to pay off their debts).There are several disturbing documentaries about Dubai worker exploitation and some very prominent human rights groups focused on Dubai these days.Here's a summary:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Dubai

Thanks for the great responses Scott and Joel - however I think I failed to articulate my question sufficiently enough.One of the important aspects that my investing partner and I look into with any new city is essentially where are all the jobs located?

If you could explain your situation more that would help with options for the financing aspect.

That's a great benefit, and you'll think about your business more strategically after you have good reporting in place.Make sure you correctly account for the houses as inventory versus fixed assets if you are flipping, as it impacts your taxes.

He's a really good guy with lots of experience and great references just not to bright in the business management aspect.