Quick backstory on myself and my real estate experience: I am a Wholesaler/Investor in the Metro - Detroit area and I am about to start Direct mail for the first time.

Had a bad experience recently with a contractor.

I have zero experience, but my wife and I eat out a lot???"

From my experience, the most reputable/reliable GCs will charge for a scope of work and overall consultation/advice.

@Scott EwellLeveraged vs debt-free is a personal decision to some extent.Leverage will give you a higher ceiling on your investment, whereas debt free provides the lower floor.While I can't say which is best for you in particular; I can say that, in my experience, every majorly successful investor I've come across uses debt in their strategy to some degree.

I was trying to be nice and just explain that you can't actually manage real estate if you have no money and no experience.

You should be receiving a monthly owner statement and then you can just incorporate it into your corporate accounting.I have almost 20 years of PM experience in the accounting/finance world.

Does this match up with your experience. 

How has your experience been?

These FSBO's are usually idiots, or think other people are from my personal experience.