The obvious answer is networking, but what can you do beyond that and looking at financials involved in their deals?

Glad you're here.There are lots of ways to learn more and getting involved in the local real estate investor community in DC is something I'd also put on the beginner list.

What is involved in this that I might be missing?

We're looking do more involved projects and a family member has expressed interest in investing some money with us on a per project basis. 

The world you are and want to be involved in is too intrusive to be something you and her disagree on in principle.  

Both are the same but one is interviewing men and the other women.I did find interesting similarities between the upper half of income earners vs the lower half.Granted, the people barely scraping by are going to have a much harder time getting involved in this game, but all the same, it's a quick read that hopefully reaffirms what most of us are trying to do....be financially well off! 

I am not going anywhere in the RE game; to much of a passion for it and my involvement in the restaurant is basically going to be just marketing from Memphis and maintaining relationships with bankers when we open up store # 2, 3, 4.......One of the owners is relocating to run it.

Tobey I am quite involved with vacation rentals here in Orlando - a great vacation spot.  

You need to get an attorney involved for Seller Financed transactions, especially if you have not done this before.  

Also, you can have 2 apts buildings with the same square footage and same materials, but one can cost a lot more than the other because of how they're designed/layed out, so you need someone who has actually built an apt building involved in the design phase.