Sometimes it's a little return for a lot of effort :(  Sometimes it's a lot of return for a little effort :)  Being able to shelter 20% - 40% of your profit by being guided through some hoops but actually doing the exact same selling and buying I would be doing anyway seems like a great return for little extra effort.

If your friend has a bank that he likes then just go to the bank and they can guide him on what to do.  

Maybe check out "The Complete Guide to Buying and Selling Apartment Buildings" and the books they have on sale at BP.Anyways, I don't recommend over-researching without jumping in.

Our plan was in our head, and we did a lot of things that could have been avoided if we had the 'roadmap' to guide us there.

Check out the ultimate beginners guide here at BP.

Make sure to read the Beginner’s Guide: http://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investing

I´m 25 years old, originally from Mexico City, but living in Columbus Ohio since 2016 due to a job relocation.I have a bachelor's degree in systems engineering and a MBA.Currently working a full time job on a supply chain company in Columbus, Ohio.Actively looking to learn and start investing on Real Estate in order to get an early retirement (stop working for a company and spend my time and money on my own business).I have very basic real estate experience at the moment.I guess as many of you I started a couple of years ago with "Rich dad poor dad" and from there I have been trying to run out from the rat race.On November 2016 I attended one of this guru weekend workshops and taking out the fact that they try to sell you a "magic formula" to get rich with just little effort and paying them 50K, I think it was a good introduction to what real estate investing is, get to know some vocabulary and a better idea of how the business works.After attending to the workshop I decided to research a little bit more about RE and I found this awesome site called BiggerPockets, in which I have found a lot of interesting forums, webinars and podcasts.My real estate goals at the moment look like these...2017 - Learn as much as possible about real estate market on my area, raising money and exit strategies.2018 - Have a detalied real state business plan and do my first investment.2019 and beyond - Spend a big amount of time and money working to get a monthly income of 5K on real estate investments.I´m currently looking for a mentor to guide my real estate experience on the greater Columbus area.My main interest at the moment is the buy and hold strategy, so most likely I would like to connect with people already making some money of rental properties, but I´m always open to learn different strategies.In reward, my mentor will get my commitment of about 10 to 15 hours a week of hard work on helping get and analyze deals by performing some time consuming tasks that could be delegated to me so I can learn about the business while I help someone else grow your business.

I highly suggest you to read, "The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Real Estate Investing".

Check out the Real Estate Agent's Ultimate Guide to working with investors at https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/08/24/real-estate-agents-working-with-investors/! 

I have read rich dad and ultimate beginner guide.