so you can see both sides.. or should she talk to a investors who has a laundry list of questions .. and criteria.. ( I love that one) that is so unrealistic that its simply a waste of time.with my agents only a few were really good with investors.. they knew how to vette them and cut lose the time wasters.. but to say an industry is 95% bad is just a poor statement in my mind.. its just like saying all wholesalers are scum.. or all of anything are scums.. if you choose to work with investors buying low end SFR;s I get it more power to you.. but there is another world out there and for good agents that are investors agents know where the deals are and get fed off market deals.. they simply choose who they work with .. they don't need to take on newbie type buyers..

While there are some key concepts to understand before jumping in (such as the prohibited transaction rules), self-directed investing can be a really powerful alternative to keeping retirement funds locked into the stock market.

The parents are actually trying to relocate back to the area and really want the house...yes daughter is getting power of attorney to handle transactions BUT they decided that they want to try to secure a mortgage loan now (I have seller under contract to pay her $25,000 and the buyer offered $30,000. 

The fact that you don't need a down payment just happens to make it a really powerful investment tool, as the traditional 25% down payment for an investment property is one of the more significant barriers to entry for RE investing.

Going to meetings is powerful - when you see 300 people excited about something, many of them already sucssefull for years, and feel the energy in that room, you get a sense of possibilities.Over the course of 10 years my wife went from shaking her head about the idea, to being a careful supporter (still pumping the breaks when I bought a property every six weeks) being a property owner and actually a vocal advocate to other wifes when we host a  workshop or go to a meetup.

Either way - investment property or primary residence - I'm a huge fan of the power of HELOC to get some momentum in REI.

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One of the biggest hurdles when my wife and I first started was helping her understand the power of real estate investing.

@Jarib RivasI don't have an idea of the effect of a trade war on real estate markets but I think it's an interesting question.My hunch would be that the relative purchasing power of the dollar (and then it follows value of real estate backed by dollars) is affected by the exchange rate.Would be curious if others with a more academic and analytical macro economic and finance mind will weigh in....

Despite the negative connotations surrounding 203k loans because of all the rules you need to follow, I believe it is a very powerful and relatively risk-averse strategy for new investors.