I'm a brand newbie to the world of REI and this site and I'm looking to go ahead and jump in and get my feet wet.

@Jon Holdman, wow, small world.

I have lived in several 3rd world countries that looked like a fine kingdom by comparison.

I know its a bit late - but real estate investing in New Zealand is tough.The Auckland market is one of the least affordable real estate markets in the world.

I'm thinking that meeting up with someone established in the REI world and seeking to understand deals in motion will help me wrap my brain around the A-Z of how deals get worked.

Yep, that's the challenge in the 1031 Exchange world. 

However, if I do some renovation project and need contractors and bids, it wouldn't be the end of the world, because that is something I want to do eventually anyhow; it'd basically be pushing me to do it now, instead of a few years from now. 

Thank you, Mattew it is a small world and Dmitrity thank you for the advice.

I go into the house to find amazing $5/sq foot flooring throughout the property when I planned to do the $.70/sq foot flooring due to it being a cheaper house ($40k), so I called him and said "hey this really isn't in my budget I can't afford this stuff it is going to blow the budget".He started laughing out loud and said it was meant to be a surprise his buddy that works at a hardware store had someone bail on a special order of this oak bamboo flooring that is $5/Sq foot and he got it for $.99/ Sq foot and he was under budget on the rest of the house so he hooked it up.Just goes to show having a great contractor can make a world of difference.

Yeah I'll stay in my cozy corner of the world for now!