experience: I’m on my 3rd flipage: early 40sday job: brand and web design/development retirement savings: noneI want to learn about buy and hold to secure having SOMETHING for retirement!

No, I've not invested with SCDC, and it's not likely I will without evidence they can do / have done what they've claimed on their web site.

I wonder if there is a way to web scrape for when a new realtor is hired or passed exams in the area so that I could hit them up immediately.  

An 8% protected preferred return or a 10-12% target return. 3) Our passive note platform (Swell.investments) has yield from 8-20%. these are loans we have already originated and are available right now and we are happy to keep vs. matchmaking or crowdfunding where you only get to invest if the marketplace collects enough investor dollars or the matchmaker has a deal ready to fund (what you call whole trust deed investing).

There are a lot of great resources here and around the web for people looking to invest in Birmingham.

Is the portal a downloaded application or is it a web portal?

There are broker/matchmakers out there and you can get 12% or better. 

They claim to charge in the "high 4 figures" - one web source says it's $4800 - to join their group and get access to their network and resources.  

I scoured craigslist, the web and facebook for people to do very specific tasks.

You are right about dark web exposure.