With deals like you describe, Gail could achieve her goal with about $1 million.Now, this is a lot easier if you, the properties and the bank are all in the same area.

I think it really comes down to a newbie investor being able to decipher between someone like yourself and a "mentor" who is going to charge the most they can out of a student because it's easier to make money that way.

In the end if you have no comsumer debt and just mortgages it will be a lot easier to have a high cashflow.

This can affect a lot of things for example you could have them put up 20% to obtain financing and it might make things move towards getting a loan easier.

I hired several persons/contractors to do the painting, landscaping, cleaning and maintainance, but I don't have their SSN or TIN, so I did not send them form 1099MISC, do I still can deduct all those costs from the rental incomes on my tax return this year?

It's quicker, easier and cheaper than allowing your property to be probated.

This makes it easier as a landlord because you have a variety of applicants to chose from.Hope this helps from a college guys perspective.

Right now I currently work a full time job where I have a whole lot of flexibility but not quite ready for the leap into real estate full time, at the same time I have a side carpet cleaning business that I am using to build up some funds for my wholesailing business, I want to use my wholesailing business to give me some experience in real estate investing, would it be the smartest idea to have my part time carpet cleaning business while trying to start my wholesailing business.

When you have nothing invested, it's that much easier to quit.

Life's a tad bit easier, but I do admit, driving those monster forklifts around was pretty fun!