Jacob, he is feasibly right in the method he probably used to acquire properties he owns as flipping wasn’t a common method of building a rental portfolio in ‘those days’.

You are correct, using this method will require even better deals to be successful.

I absolute love working in REI but simply can't keep up with all the tasks that need to be completed in order to grow effectively (or without becoming overwhelmed with work).Wondering what were the first or best tasks...

There are MANY ways to do this, and if you look through some of my old posts from years back I explained my method in detail.Here is a link to a very good article that goes through almost all of the best methods written by BP's own @Scott Costello.

It would be nice to share costs, and I want to get in the habit of including others in deals, so that I can learn more methods for doing that well, and so I start a deal flow.  

Zoning  often changes and most large cities will have a method to document existing non-conforming properties to allow the property to continue to operate.  

I was talking with a friend about investing in real estate, and had mentioned the method of wholesaling to get into the arena and then building from there.

If I have $1,000 extra to spare each month,  which method should I use?

Please do share your methods as well! 

When someone claims they know for certain that global warming is real (or not real), I take that to mean that they don't appreciate the complexity of the scientific method and the difficulty in evaluating the changes to a complex ecosystem.