Ok, one thing you have to do is reward yourself because you did something right to get them to agree to meet with you!

I am curious to hear what you come across.Like yourself I have learned and not by a get rich book in real estate but taking the plunge and making some bad decisions but I have also been well rewarded by decisions that were in my favor.  

I'll let her jump in here if and when she sees this and wants to..Truly a mutually rewarding experience :)And I only even know a chunk of the infinite real estate knowledge out there.

If I've got to take the risk of getting planning approval for what is probably a change of zoning (as a guess), then I'm reaping the rewards, not the seller, who has zero skin in the game.

Agents are rewarded for the service they render through commission paid by the seller.  

As mindy pointed out, you also need to understand what your finances are, what you can borrow using a mlo or even a hard money loan or bring some friends into a joint venture. all have their own risks/rewards of course so it comes down to your risk tolerance.  

Rinzin, It sounds like you want to take very little risk and reap all the rewards. 

so challenging but rewarding ln the long run...

However, it has more rewards too.  

My issues with these are 1) I want to keep the rehab costs as low as possible as if I was the investor, and do not want to be rewarded for higher costs2) Soon I will be putting money in projects with him as a partner, and my mindset is analyzing deals that will have the highest return and want to be rewarded or penalized when the project does not work out like planned.