Franchise success in the restaurant industry proves that right?  

If you act alone and get in some future trouble, bet on things going badly with a judge when he finds you were booted out of the industry by HUD. 

Since I am new to the industry I would like to see if any of you might have experience with REI in New York/Greater NY area and could save me headache figuring out feasible REI opportunities/types in NY area at the moment.

He has been employed in the same industry for 35 years, has an income of 100k/year for a company he's been working for 10 years, a credit score of 740, and a good debt-to-income ratio.

I am a bit hesitant to exchange into anything in retail, office or industrial as I believe the U.S. economy is about to experience a downturn and I don't have a lot of experience in those specific asset types. 

You need a BS Meter in this industry to know who is telling you something correct and who is full of it, most are full of it being taught and influenced by the guru bunch. 

@Robert Adams  yup probably that or the famous craigs list ghost adds.this is really comical all these wholesalers who really have no clue that are trying to put these deals together.. man it really creates a very bad image of the industry I think. no professionalism at all.but when you have BP   Interenet webinars and late night TV adds pounding into peoples head that they can get rich in RE with NONE of their own money this is what you get.

You'll meet tons of people you wouldn't on here, and by meeting face-to-face it will be easier to establish a connection and really get a good sense of who you're working with and their level of professionalism and overall "non-scammy-ness" as that's such a problem in this industry.

All four of those, in my opinion, have strong market fundamentals (growth trends especially, looking at things like population, jobs, industry, etc.) and I know of a good turnkey provider in all four of those.

Their rates were right on par for the industry, and you get a discount for being a new client