It will be a weight lifted off your shoulders once you find one that answers the phone when you call and makes stuff happen.

Lease options can and should be used as a legitimate tool to help shoulder buyers become homeowners.

If I had a better head on my shoulders I would've been doing what I'm doing now a year after I purchased my first property and pushed hard to acquire more.

They give me some multi-syllable reply and I shrug my shoulders and have to decide whether to believe them or not. 

If you could JV with an experienced flipper, looking directly over their shoulder seeing how the execute it can be priceless.

He seems straightforward and the documents say my interest rate is "locked in," but I've heard horror stories of young investors having the terms skyrocket at the eleventh hour leaving them nothing to do but accept it or walk away from the deal (after having shouldered inspection and travel costs, etc.).

Just because you are now Financially free from REI doesn't mean you should stop being a Doctor, Dentist, etc.What it means is that you have the CHOICE of stopping or even scaling back your current profession.What it also means is that because you don't NEED the job, the stress from your job melts from your shoulders and you can now enjoy what you spent most of your life trying to do.You will even be healthier because of the lack of stress!

I'm very interested in splitting profits with someone that's head and shoulders more experienced than me.

I understand it will require a leap of faith on your part but [look into his eyes here from half a foot distance, and grab his shoulder and rub it uncomfortably and squeeze his muscle tightly and say] if you stick with me, I promise you I will become a relentless force in the investing world and we WILL make money.. ... while for the next 4 seconds (FOUR, not 3, not 5, but 4) you keep staring into his eyes (from half a foot apart), noses almost touching.It worked for me Do this.

You seem like you have a good head on your shoulders and have a good idea of what you want so that's great.