People get into trouble using short term debt on NNN and overpaying for the income stream with weak tenants that are not properly underwritten for risk in sub par locations.That is generally when buyers run into trouble.    

However, with a weak background in this area, it seems unwise to rush forward and do something that I know little about.

Domestic asset protection trusts are yet to be fully tested in court but are likely to suffer from the same weaknesses as foreign trusts.

Federal and state will be cracking down on a per zip code basis apartments that have foundation issues or weak due to new seismic code.

When you tell these people that it often takes more than a decade before the investing makes things like that possible, they go looking elsewhere for advice, until they find someone who's willing to sell them what they want to hear.Building relationships, improving your lifestyle, relieving chronic anxiety, creating strong friendships, building bonds with family, work-life balance, delayed gratification, risk-reward management, lifelong financial freedom, all the really good things about REI are often suffocated under the overwhelming need to GENERATE INCOME TO QUIT MY HATEFUL JOB.What's the best thing about investing for me?

And again to your point, if you buy a property in a more challenging neighborhood from a position of financial weakness, you'll get crushed.

, which is indicative of either the broker having  no idea of what an appraisal entails and how it relates to the subject property or the mortgage broker is so weak that he is afraid to educate the borrower as to the reality of obtaining commercial loans without appraisals.

With collateral that weak 80% of upb is a pipe dream.

There are definitely pros and cons to each so I figured I would just lay out a few benefits and personal thoughts: Small banks/brokerages:Pros:- Some regional knowledge of the market- Possibility of more creative lending guidelines with bank specific programs- Sometimes they have competitive rates for their areaCons: - weak balance sheet (more strict on some guidelines, no wiggle room, inability to be flexible or grant exceptions because they cannot afford to hold less than perfect loans)- Can't scale with clients to different markets- Usually limits exposure to individual investors (they don't want one investor to be too big of a portion of their balance sheet)- Lack of experience with multiple solutions (tend to have 2 or 3 loan products they sell and are too niche to provide tailored solutions)Large banks/brokerages:Pros:- Large compliance departments that understand individual market guidelines (typically each state has specific lending guidelines that augment the national baseline)- Ability to scale into multiple markets with same lender (licensed in many states)- Impossible for individual investors to "outgrow" a large bank's balance sheet (not concerned with one investor's concentration)- More lending solutions available for different scenarios- Often comparable or better rates given the game is volume basedCons:- Can be more difficult to get fast responses if the bank/brokerage does not have good follow up systems in place (or if the underwriting/processing staff gets overwhelmed)- Bad large banks can feel less like a relationship and more like a cog in a factory (less personal)Overall, I have worked from both and worked with both as a loan officer, branch manager, and as an investor/client myself. 

This isnt for the weak...