Car loans, property Purchase/Refi and credit spending is floating the boat for us all.

I'm not a flipper, so take this with a grain of salt.People are going to spend about 0.5 seconds looking at your mailer before deciding if they want to read it or throw it away. 

I have been a member for the past few months, spending a good amount of time reading the blogs and forum posts, as well as listening to the podcasts.

My goals are to achieve enough cash flow to be able to make my own schedule and spend time with my family.

I second the advise to spend time reading and set up keyword alerts for location as well as the type of investing you want to do.

Get a feel for what they will lend on before you spend your time chasing the moon.  

I have done a few flips with some people I know but it was in Texas and unfortunately the money people didn't want to listen to me or other contractor (brother) about where to spend money and where not to so the three houses I did and spent a lot of time away from home to do didn't net me anything.  

You can make (and spend) big bucks doing that, so you need to make sure the risk is worth it

Ryan Dossey, how did you NOT jump at the chance to spend $40,000 on this prize?!?

I've offered to let them paint but apparently the male "doesn't want to spend his days off painting".