Reevaluating my parents choices I learned that discipline, consistency, persistency and hard work is very important if you want to be a successful real estate investor.

You can be more aggressive in looking for motivated sellers by contacting absentee (out-of-area) owners, for instance.So I completely agree with Hoang's buying discipline here.

Real estate tends to be less financially complicated than investing in businesses (via the stock market or otherwise), which is why -- I believe -- more people are successful investing in real estate than in business.But, if you are an expert in fundamental analysis of companies and have the time/discipline to do your due diligence and make expert decisions, you can make just as much (if not more) money investing in businesses than you can in real estate.Warren Buffett is the perfect example of that...and there are thousands of people like Buffett who make millions doing specialized investment in businesses, whether through the stock market or directly.Also, I'm sure there are plenty of landlords who I imagine wish they had put all their money in the stock market rather than in bad real estate investments over the past 5-7 years!

Hey Max, I'm not closing the door on any particular discipline, but I think long term, I'm looking at a steady buy and hold.

The average person doesn't have the discipline to just leave their money in an index fund and forget about it.

As it relates to home ownership, the discipline and long term vision required to undertake a 30 or 40 year contract is diluted in an "excitement" and material oriented culture.

Are you disciplined & well-organized?

Maybe the ones having these babies would develop some discipline and make some decisions before just becoming a baby factory.

Mentoring just hastened the process...Same with real estate investing...it comes down to intelligence, hard work, research, motivation, and discipline.

Along with a lot of hard work, knowledge and the discipline to apply it.