Michael, Fred is correct, educate yourself fully until you feel comfortable taking action.

You are correct that one of the best things about being a RE investor is that you have control (most of the time).

Is it correct that we/she won't get the benefit of deduction on real estate tax and mortgage interest payment because it is rental and her status, right?

I can't build the graphic in this box because I don't have drawing tools but think of a golden triangle ( no jokes you hippies and other Thailand tourists) The base is ETHICS one side is $$ and the other side is LAW.

We have some tools here for finding rents, but I find they tend to be a little high.

Well, I hope that you appreciate the changes and find many of the new tools/applications on the site to be helpful.The site has a lot to offer and hopefully you can navigate it.

Lease option has some really great appeal to it, if done correctly.

Google and Yahoo have helpful analytic tools that can help you determine what words and phrases make the most sense for driving paid traffic to your website.

Correct, anyone can sell there own house, they do not need a license and other brokers can not go after you, hence the FSBO.

But unfortunately, you have to sit there and guess what the correct discount rate would be to end up with zero.I find that in excel, simply using the rate() function to find out the rate of a FV, will give me a compoundable rate of return, that makes no account for discounting or reinvestment.