My original long term goal was essentially to retire from my 9-5 job in 15 years time making enough to have a comfortable lifestyle on income from mutual funds and stocks (I'm slightly ahead of target on this front) but believe I can shorten this to (at most) 9 years if I add real estate into the mix.

Learning to use these forces consciously can be a very potent tool in a person's life.Now don't get me wrong, pragmatic action is absolutely necessary.

Property managers also aren't as price/quality conscious when it comes to doing repairs/maintenance.

It's a family deal, grandma owns it outright and needs the cash to maintain a comfortable lifestyle.

I began educating myself with books and eventually joined Lifestyles here in Houston and began my push to start to invest in real estate.

- Your need for access to that money (liquidity) for investing, lifestyle, reserves or other needs. - Your strategy to minimize to minimize interest and tax expenses since these are the largest expenses most people will pay and sometimes its not the rate of growth/return you need to be concerned about but rather just a reduction in interest and taxes alone could have significant impact the growth of your equity and assets over time

Something I need to be more conscious of..

Check out Podcast 37 with Aaron Mazarillo - http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/09/26/lifestyle-investing-podcast-aaron-mazzrillo/He touches on some topics about dealing with tenants without losing your mind.

I saw a great write up about BP on another blog that was discussing RE programs you have to pay for in Houston, ie, Lifestyles Unlimited.

The easiest way is to make some lifestyle decisions and save up.