Deploying capital at attractive rates of return quickly

[Ian Reynolds]

Real estate seems to me to have a lot of correlations to investing in lower middle-market businesses. Many people have described the process of investing in realestate as being a slow way to build wealth. Having spoken with a number of real estate investors I can understand that. However, it appears that folks with enough financial savvy and a little luck are able to build a portfolio rather quickly. 

What is the reasonable rate that capital can be deployed into a major market and achieve 20-30% rates of return on cash? It appears that multi-family is the best way to deploy larger sums. But because those opportunities are few and far between, holding cash may be inefficient. 

What has been your experience in how quickly you can deploy funds? For someone who wanted to take capital from their primary business how quickly could they transition to real estate?