@Adam Peacock if you're looking for an easier and more passive approach to investing, and while you're in your discovery process, have you considered syndication as an alternative vehicle.

Compare and contrast all the vehicles you can use and see which one works best for your goals. 

They actually had to increase the down payment by over double what we initially expected because of the bank's heavy stipulations to loan on it.

Is owning a vehicle in such cities crucial to success? 

If you have an ambitious goal in a shorter period of time and you have decide that real estate is your primary vehicle, then you have to be in the market to make it works.

I bought a few lots in Richmond CA and was toying with the idea of putting these on their.. but he does not have them approved outside of OR>I snagged the lot for 60k put say one of these 100k units on it and now you have a 175k into a home in market that is 25 minutes ( without heavy commute traffic) to downtown SF.. were median price is about 1.5 million.. so these would fill a huge need and gap in high priced areas.. for 90% of the country I don't see it.. existing homes in areas like say indy were median home price is 120k.. you can buy existing for less .. why bother right ?

You'll simply enter that 1099-INT on your own income tax return, and that's the end of it.Living trusts serve mainly as probate-avoiding vehicles and are popular for that reason and because no separate income tax reporting is necessary.Is that true? 

So, I sold my vehicle and that funded the down payment for my first rental property.

I've been looking to start getting into REI as an investment vehicle on the side and am pretty excited to to be learning so much about it.Hold and Rent / Fix and Rent are kind of the areas i'm most interested in for the moment while I'm working full-time.

This was my first purchase as a Licensed Agent, the area was in a heavy buyers market at the time, and this property was being listed by an agent in my office, plus was owned by an out of state relative after the death of the previous owner, giving me a huge advantage with the negotiation How did you finance this deal?