You can definitely get burned if you are not paying attention.

The people who are willing to research/understand their investments are generally the ones who see it's easier to do it themselves or take a more active role.The ones looking to just drop their money in something they don't understand(whether stocks, re, etc) are the ones who shouldn't be doing that and may ultimately get burned.

I've dabbled a bit with RE investing in the past, but the last decade got a bit busy for us active military folks, so I gave it up for a while.I'm looking forward to really focusing some time and energy on real estate, and sharing and learning with all of you here!

After I fixed n flipped couple of properties and spent all of my time and energy, I soon realized that the deals I'm doing are not as much profitable as I would like to see.So I started marketing on my own to get to the source and negotiate deals and get properties at a wholesale price, I have tried direct mail marketing and kept it under $200 - $400/month budget, I was getting 1% response rate and did few deals that way.

Find another contractor.Don't ever pay for work up front.Don't ever NOT use solid contracts.I got burned $45,000 last year for not following this...It hurt.

I am burned out with this.

Now that it has burned off, I shelved my license.

However, I considered my long-time tenants being displaced so i stuck with it, as it turned out I ended up being burned...Also i had to reduce the rent for the new tenants since the prior rent was above market, which in turn increases my deficit to the current ~$800.

The biggest thing that we have a huge advantage with is our time, energy, and tenacity, and a mentor will look a willingness to take the time to learn, someone that takes action, asks smart questions, and someone that will run with every piece of advice that is given, no matter how small.

Here's my podcast interview about it.For a turnaround situation like this you need to consider your CASH BURN.