I have owned a flooring store in DFW for the last 7 years, and I've worked with both retail customers and investors. Last year, my dad passed away in west Texas and I inherited 2 houses in the kind of shape that people would love to see driving for dollars. So over the last year I dealt with houses with roofs with gaping holes in them, mold damage, rain damage, broken sewage pipes, stolen water heaters, an ancient electrical panel that had caught on fire, my grandmother's metal shed being stolen by a hoarder tenant, my dad also being a hoarder, and even some fun squatters. Fortunately, a GC I work with helped me save the day. She introduced me to a hard money guy, helped me set up the deal and helped me by sending workers to west Texas. It was about this time that some squatters broke into one of the houses and started sleeping there. They even lit a fire in the garage, possibly for cooking or heat I'm not sure.  I hit just about every bump in the road but eventually got the houses on the market. One of them is currently sold, and the other is still on the market. The one that was sold had a guy on Facebook trying to get deposits for rent from people. Basically after the house was under contract, this guy broke in my house 5 hours away and started showing it to people to get rent deposits from them. Fortunately, my realtor caught it and we got the locks replaced. ANYWAYS! So yeah, I'm sure some of you are now wondering why I'm here after all those problems. I guess I caught the bug? Honestly, even after the repairs, and the hard money and everything I came well out ahead. At this point I guess nothing is going to surprise me moving forward even though there probably will be things.  I'm in the Fort Worth area and looking to learn a bit more at this point.