Remember, experience has taught me to check your links out.
s

OK, I'll go first.
This is a non success story (OK, I'll say it, a FAILURE)
Getting all excited about the mining boom in a nearby town, we entered into what looked like an exciting opportunity to subdivide/reconfigure a few blocks of land and resell.  The agent was a local Councilor (as in local govt, not as in psych), smoothly made it sound like we could make $200K in a few months.  There was a lack of other information available to us on the market. No local paper.  No local property manager.  A couple of agents operating locally.  The RPData report wasn't current enough to keep pace with the fast moving market.  Council had a subdivision of their own underway, and we felt sure we would be finished and sold before them.  In the absence of other information, I relied too heavily on the opinion of the agent.  Big mistake.  Our ability to make money out of the project hinged on our abilty to complete within a certain timeframe.  Things started to go wrong before the contract became unconditional.  The bank wasn't happy.  A broker found me alternate finance that leveraged everything we had.  There was trouble getting a shed demolished in time for a surveyor to do his job (the shed was in his way).  Council dropped their price for blocks in the new subdivision below our price.  There was trouble getting services put in within our timeframe, then a building report came in with one of the residences having a leaking roof.  In the end if started to feel that the world was conspiring against us with the whole deal, and we exited the contract using the clause about us being unsatisfied with the building report.  We lost a few grand in the cost of valuations, and council approval for the subdivision, but the relief was immense.  A few months later, interest rates started to rise.  The council subdivision didn't sell.  Then the global economy started to shake. 

What did I learn?  If you  can't get good information, don't substitute with bad info from a RE agent.  Give the deal a miss.  
Talk to your financier first, don't get your heart set on a deal that will cause you to be over leveraged.  Allow for your timeline to at least DOUBLE.  Be prepared to exit a contract, losing a few thousand dollars, rather than risking everything.  There is no substitute for intimately knowing a market yourself, rather than relying upon the opinions of others.  Vendors who are selling potential development sites will often have priced the site as if it were already developed, leaving little or no margin for the actual developer.  They know it is valuable real estate and are trying to capitalise on that without actually carrying out the development themselves.  Make sure your contract has plenty of good ways out.

I've never done any hard core reno, but I've done the freshen up, painting, gardening etc etc.  I've learnt a great value in using the little shops.  You know, the little paint shop on the corner that is owned an run by a guy who has been in paint his whole life and can give you just the best advice.  You may pay a bit more for his product (I found it wasn't much more), but his advice is just so valuable.  He can help with advice on colour schemes, prep work, even a bit of plastering etc etc.  My lesson was to give the large hardware warehouse a miss until you know what you're doing and make use of the smaller businesses that offer a better level of knowledge and customer service to learn what you can.  Of course, getting a pro in to do a bit of the job and learning what you can is also a great idea.  We had a pro painter paint the living area in our PPOR, and I learnt alot about how to do painting well and fast, which we then applied to all the other rooms and the exterior ourselves.  Likewise, the small nursery supplier – great on advice and help.  I really detest going into those massive warehouses, losing myself, forgetting what I wanted, getting no help whatsoever, feeling totally useless.  The smaller shops make you feel welcome, and you leave with the stuff you need, some great advice and a feeling like you CAN do the job.
good luck.
S

Don't panic.  I'm just having a laugh.
I'll have to stop that.
Sorry.
Serious investor stuff only from now on..
S

May I suggest that such a thead could also contain non success stories.  Many of us have learned much from our mistakes.  These stories might also be a good inclusion in such a thread.
S

Wow!
How did we get to rich is bad?  Why, unmester, if you don't want to ever own any real estate other than your own PPOR are you such an active participant on a property investors forum? All very interesting ideas.  It is necessary to recognise that resources are scarce, and that if you are to increase your own wealth, it will be at the expense of others.  Is this unfair?  Not necessarily.  If you provide housing, funding, labour, skills, products that other people are willing to pay you for, then what is wrong with that?  If you are particularly skilfull at leveraging your own set of resources to provide a high profit, then what is wrong with that?  There is everything wrong with lying, cheating, taking part in dishonest dealings.  Some people make alot of money that way, some go to jail, some end up dead. 

I'm reminded of a comment my mother in law made once when my husband and I were relating a story about a succesful couple who are freinds of ours.  This couple had built up a successful business, and done very well providing a service within the mining industry.  They were in the process of defending a workers comp related lawsuit.  Good old story of employee has a minor but permanent injury and is going to make sure it means not having to work for the rest of their life (I think the bloke lost a finger).  My mother in laws comment was pretty much along the lines of our freinds were getting what was coming to them.  The idea was that they could have only achieved such success unethically and that they were now in for the related fall.  My mother in law and her husband are lovely, but not at all well off.

My original problem was with the "rich people are selling" comment that was made by W4L quite a few posts ago.  My problem was that the comment was very non specific, and wasn't referenced.  Who were these rich people, what were they selling, why should that indicate something to us, and if so then what, where did this information come from?  My intention was not to demonstrate any feeling that "rich people are evil", just to challenge the point that the statement "rich people are selling" meant anything very specific about the economy.  

Personally, I happen to believe that there is ample scope for sufficiently skilled, informed, motivated and well timed individuals to make alot of money without compromising their ethics.
S 

It is good for us all to have our thoughts and opinions challenged, debate refines our thinking, and often adds to our education.  Most of us have a fairly elastic approach to learning which allows us to take on information from other sources which meet  our personal criteria so far as credibility is concerned, while rejecting information which does not come from a credible source.  This allows those of us with good judgement (time will tell if I am one of them) to assimilate a large amount of quality information from a range of sources over a short period of time.  Those with extremist thoughts are a danger to people who don't have much ability to pick between credible sources of information and a whole load of clap trap peddled by someone who may be articulate, yet relatively uneducated and certainly overly subjective in their views.  People with extreme thoughts are also a danger to themselves in that their extreme views often prevent them from identifying other credible information which challenges and refines their own thinking, so they never learn anything new unless it is from a source which fits in with their own beliefs, thus reinforcing their thinking further.

What is it worth TO YOU?  10% under at least.  I'd be starting to feel a little cheeky at 20% unless I had some reason to feel that the property was overpriced to begin with.  But then, lots of cheap offers will sooner or later get you a cheap property.  You should have a feel for what to offer, though, from talking to the agent, looking at the property and your knowledge of the local market.  Importantly, be prepared to walk away if they won't come to the party at a price you are happy with.  Also, don't act too keen.  Remember, you're an investor who looks at lots of properties, wether or not this one comes off for you doesn't really matter to you.

I think you've got it pretty well covered.  I like the paper the best cause in my market it is the primary marketing tool for property, and I really enjoy reading through it on a Saturday morning.  Or I did, have to say I'm getting a little sick of waiting and waiting for what I think will happen in the market.  I find the websites to be a fair waste of time, personally, but occassionally run a few searches, just to see what I come up with in a specific price bracket or area or configuration. There is always realcommercial.com if you are interested in commercial real estate, of course.
S