Also remember the income from a REIT is taxed as regular income whereas if you own actual real estate assets you have tax advantaged income due to depprecitaion of the builing and the equity gain you get from the tenants paying down your loan is tax free.

5. i was SO beat down (along w/some very poor herd mentality investments in other things) that i am now committing @Will Barnard 's other mistake of spending 4yrs - currently in 2nd year - of wanting/planning to get back on the horse before really doing it (again). 6. working backwards from goal to action steps and committing each day or regular period time per week towards attainment of that goal - while consistently networking... working on that now... :) 7. and lastly... knowing the numbers, the market, the area, and the numbers - practical and on paper.

They were purchases off the MLS, one was a short sale and the other a regular listing that needed a lot of work.

if you see a house about to be rehabbed, chances are that investor does repetitive moves and has a regular team.go in the house and get the contractor name and contact info (just be sure the flipper is not there) and/or write down the name of the licensed guys listed on the permits. call the village & ask for their contact info or just googled it.if the permit is a GC or construction company, don't even bother - they just farm it out or have employees.

I know I use a regular sales agreement with an option period to tie up the house.

Somehow I'd never considered the interaction of tenants in the building and the specific issues that might create in such a location.

I'm also a Realtor and locally my focus is with regular home buyers.

You have to make regular ( at least quarterly) and substantially level payments back to your Solo(k).

To rank organically (non-paid traffic) on Google you need to be adding quality content to your site regularly.

Not mentioned in first post, but getting the scoop on tenant came over the course of multiple interactions - that were strangely repetitive and rambling at times... and he has since called back and left messages wanting to talk about it some more - that the rent was often late over the last year- why the glowing rec then??