I think there is an opportunity, what would you do.

[Chris Lucero]

I have been renting SFHs for about 18 years, I have 3 and I help my aunt with hers.  I am comfortable with managing the rentals, collecting, evicting, repairs, etc...  my 3 units are paid off and and I have a mortgage on the house I live in.  I have no debt except for my mortgage and 3 kids (LOL).  I live in a small ruralish area about 50k people.  I make a little on my rentals and have a career type gig in IT that pays decent.  I really like my job but am not always fulfilled but my time off is amazing and health insurance is nice.  I just started the process to get loan on a new house and my current primary will become another rental.  I am toying with the idea of trying to get into a real estate office as a realtor in order to increase my knowledge of how things work so I can pursue my goal of having 40 units.   Is there something I could be overlooking as far as "jobs" or careers that would lend to increasing my knowledge in this field while I  work to earn cash and learn while preparing to launch off on my own?

Any questions or comments are welcome and appreciated.  

[Brian Pawl]

Agreed with @Vick Galu. That was actually what I did to get started. My job was in the financial markets, and I got my real estate license on the side to learn the business. I then switched jobs to a property management company as an asset manager for about 3,000 units where I learned A TON! Finally, I felt comfortable starting to do my own flips and buy rental properties, and now I'm doing all of the above plus helping others realize their dreams as well. I couldn't be more happy in my career and have not looked back for a second after leaving the financial services industry.

Best of luck to you!

Brian