Most of the pages on this site are about stock investing. Nevertheless, many readers are interested in real estate investing. As you have noticed, the quality of advice in the real estate area is generally very poor. Be careful who you believe. This experienced real estate investor reinforces what your instincts are telling you. John Reed on avoiding dishonest and incompetent real estate advice:

John Reed’s site, highly recommended, has a page about detecting bad real estate advice, and states “I can make general observations about the B.S. artists which you can use to spot them.”