It is a good place to connect with real estate professionals and to learn about real estate.

It is a good place to connect with real estate professionals and to learn about real estate.

You won't be able to out-market or out-spend the professionals who have spent years branding themselves as the "expert" in their sub-market.If you spend money, spend it on "active" marketing which gets your face, voice, and presence directly in front of people you may do business with.Think Outside of the BoxDo the things that most people won't do.

The previous owners "professionally" cleaned the carpets which are stained and smell like pee.  

A qualified tax and legal professional can explain it (I'm not!).

I'm going to say that it depends what your goals are in seeking education.Cruising these forums, you'll see stories where people lost money because of what didn't know or didn't know to watch out for.At the same time, you'll find a pervasive and powerful bias against paid education.You'll want to decide for yourself which is the greatest expense: losing money on a deal (may or may not be deductible) or paying for education to help prevent losing money on your deals (deductible as a professional development expense).

And also think about book like The Millionaire Next Door that debunk myths about wealth in the US (a bit dated, but the book's data tells us someone like a landlord in the old pickup in overalls mowing the lawn at the duplexes may be your high net worth person in America; not the flashy professional investor guy in the high end luxury sedan with a Rolex).....

I suppose I should go talk with a tax professional in belgium somewhere for more specific information.

Not against paying a professional to draft something for me, but $700 sounds high!

I've seen a handful of conversations on here in regards to renting to doctors, lawyers, "professional tenants", but haven't seen this topic before: Would you rent to a fellow real estate investor?