For purposes of this definition, an individual or entity will be found to have engaged in a pattern of business if the individual or entity by itself or with any combination of other individuals or entities,whether as partners or common owners in another entity, hasengaged in one or more of these practices on 2 or more occasions in any 12-month period."

Tired boomer + landlords that own free and clear are my favorite SF seller as well.Travis- tough to combine proper SF with no capital. 

This means the less cash you spend to buy the property, the less you have at risk.Based on your complete statement above, the reason why you lost everything had more to do with your lack of knowledge on how to analyze properties, and all the mistakes you said you made along the way.After ten years, using a combination of reinvesting the cash flow (part of it) and exploiting the compounding effect, the REI that only paid $20k for the same properties the other REI paid $100k for, could have had 43 properties and $215k/year in cash flow. 

Various combinations of the following I have considered.

Unless you're looking to start a job as a landlord of your own deals and hope to be financially free by the time you have grandchildren; you'll need a better plan.The vast majority of highly successful real estate investors use a combination of the I and B (or S to a lesser extent) quadrants (read RichDad's Cash Flow Quadrant) to accelerate the passive income and wealth accumulation real estate done well can provide.What source of income do you have now to funnel into real estate?

I utilize a combination of the two.

It doesn't always work but some appraisers sometimes will combine their data with other data to support the result of an appraisal.  

But the data shows that they still will go on vacation, just probably not to Aspen.The combination of STR's, low incomes, and B class properties has worked well for us.

Here is an example of what we deal with: in Richland County (SC) the AMI for a family of two is a combined 44,750. 

Here's our potential first deal we would Love to hear feedback:Property Appraised 190kAsking price 130kTriplex with combined rent of $1450/month (currently rented, could raise slightly if needed)Financing:Loan for propertyDown payment HELOC from our homeOur goal is to get started in multi family units in order to grow a portfolio and use equity from rentals to purchase more.Thoughts?