I have several close relationship with general contractors that are licensed, insured and bonded in Illinois and Indiana.

Plus, my Grandma got him $10,000 in Bonds many years ago and that will be a great graduation present in 2 years too.He would have had all kinds of student debt if it was not for all the cash flow in my RE.    

When REI can not compete with other vehicles, like stock, REITs, bond, etc, money will leave REI.There might still be deals out there, for seasoned investors.

No matter if you invest in a 401K, IRA, Individual Stocks and Bonds, Real Estate, Gold, etc., you need goals.   

Rather than wait any longer, I've decided to use my retirement savings to cut my teeth. 

When these problem tenants moved out (trashed the place), I had to pull teeth to have them put max # of people in the lease, that everyone in the house had to be listed on the lease, etc. etc.

Insurance claims need licensed, bonded, and supersized insured contractors (mostly 1M GL, 1M WC, etc), not your 100k handyman GL.

Between a large chunk of savings bonds from my late grandparents and personal reserves I will be able to show at least $30,000 in reserves above and beyond my down payment. 

I like MF and commercial retail, and own some in NZ.We cant scale it up in NZ, as there are not many to buy which are more then 4 units, we don't have buildings of 10 units under one title, these are all independently owned. purpose-built multi units buildings with 10+ units are rare as hen's teeth. and the Auckland market which is where im investing has median house price of 850k. so 4ples cost over 1.5mil and the yields are very low. like California and NY etc. 

I have negotiated them lower and negotiated them higher ( much higher)  depends on what it is and current market conditions.although in reality most agents working for a broker are not allowed to negotiate or if they are very little.its once you become an independent broker working for yourself that your free to negotiate.in our market there is defiantly pressure... downward.. 7 % used to be somewhat common... then of course you have the nationwide 6%  that is common.. now in our market 5% is more common and on high end properties you will see 4%  ... now I sold land.. it started at 10% and had been 10% for years then as the decades rolled on.. it dropped to 6% as well.I specialized in remote rural acreages as I was cutting my teeth in the industry..