Or ridiculous stuff like "online begging for money (insert sob story)" or "want to trade work for rent". 

FHA 203k loans have higher % because they are riskier for the lender, they require more work for the lender, they require more personnel for the lender to administer the process, and there is a cost trade off with being allowed to include rehab costs into the loan compared to paying for the rehab in other ways.  

As we were trading stories he tells me he's building a house and I tell him about how we want to buy a rental but finding the right lender was a challenge.

It is eye-wateringly expensive for most stocks and that's all in the face of a massive trade war our country is waging with the rest of the world.

We know every professional/service provider/trade you could possibly need related to real estate!!

Was hoping to be pointed in the right direction as to what to do when first starting out as a signing agent and some best kept secrets of the trade!

I also don't want to put the cart before the horse as we made pretty good purchases  to begin with and I don't want to just trade apples for apples. 

"Conventional wisdom", modern portfolio theory, and the typical asset allocation of high net worth individuals shows a balance between real estate, publicly traded stocks, private equity, and cash/fixed income.

I’ve watched countless videos and have considered many possible streams of income from day trading, to owning a gumball machine. 

Every good trades person right now has all the work they'd ever want and prices reflect that.