I've never thought twice about calling banks, but I've never marketed to the general public.Am I totally "free" because I am direct borrower and providing a mortgage as security?

Failure to do so results in having to refund the entire security deposit, PLUS an additional 100% of the original deposit. 

Eventually I want to learn everything I possibly can to make income in real estate.

My understanding of investing in REITs is that the returns are taxed as regular income as opposed to capital gains.

@Jeff Thompsonwhen you sell investment owned by the IRA - the gains are sheltered from taxes (because IRA is tax-deferred vehicle) and when IRA-owned investment produce income or cash-flow - it must flow into the IRA and also will be sheltered from taxes (unless the income is unrelated business taxable income). 

I currently own a few rentals in different states, but since getting my real estate license i have started looking at family and friends for prospecting new deals as a new agent.I have a family member who has been renting houses for as long as i can remember between her and her boyfriend, but they both have some bad credit due to falling behind a few years back after both losing their jobs and juggling life for a while tell they found new jobs.I am a bit unsure about this idea still due to the fact that i have been running numbers on multi-family homes to purchase in the near future and turn into rentals, but i want to help them if it's a viable idea...I wanted to get your opinion on maybe purchasing a house based on their needs and running a lease option on the house for them to purchase down the road when they have the credit again....Right now they are renting a 3/1/1 for $1200/month and there is a lot of 3bed houses around them that are in the 100k and below that would meet the needs of them, im just worried about buying the house for them tieing up my own money and not have enough financing available to continue purchasing investment properties as my rental income from all my current rentals is my only income coming in right now as i start the career of an agent.

I would like to start looking at investing for myself and get some supplemental income at this point.

Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced Tuesday he would introduce legislation in the next session of Congress to fix our rigged tax system and close loopholes Donald Trump used to possibly avoid paying federal income taxes for nearly two decades.

Middle Income is about 54,000 so that is about 1,300 a month in affordable rent.So for middle class it was saying take older apartments 20,30,40 years old that have lower rents and update them but make sure the new rents are not above the median income earner level.Multifamily New Construction  

I am interested in learning how to either flip houses or invest in property to produce long-term income now, so that when I finish graduate school my wife and I can best invest our income early on.