If you have a good contractor you trust, hang onto them.  

I'm looking to getting my RE license and am wondering if there are any investor friendly brokers out there (preferably brokers that are REI themselves) that I could be looking to hang my license under when I'm done with my classes.  

I"m not paying $1/sqft to hang rock haha.  

One rule of thumb that I have learned from hanging around a very experienced lender is that portfolio loans are typically not the right product unless you are getting more than 10 properties.  

My husband and I hang our licenses with Premiere Property Group.  

Worth area is a place you need to hang your hat for a couple of years.

Take the classes needed to get a RE license, pass the test, hang your hat under a RE broker, build up a client base, and start buying and selling RE for them to get hands on experience.

I don't necessarily think buying now is a bad plan, but if you do, you need to hang onto it for at least ten years - in ten to 15 years, the value will probably double again, as it has done many times over the past ~70 years.

I had the best of all worlds, I got to live in a decent community, I got the appreciation rates of the SFR phoenix market, I lived rent free and essentially only paid for utilities, and I got to live and hang out with my friends who I know are going to take care of the place. 

In Illinois, this means that I have to hang my license for two years before I can start my own real estate company, etc.