It's a much more sophisticated crowd that remains though.

If you want to invest, meaning you want to be hands off, then either buy an apartment building which is large enough to support management and pay roll, or if you can't pull that off, put money into a syndicate, though even that will set you back $50,000 if you go with anything I do for instance.  

Payroll, bookkeeping, etc can mostly be done remotely.Here is a great list of questions to ask a potential accountant:http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/51/topics/70447-questions-to-ask-a-cpaAlso check out the www.NAEA.org page in your search.

Please rate the "investor" for me, sophisticated or a first timer?

The are not the most sophisticated Real Estate Investor who deals with 32 or 50 or 100 units.

I've actually met some pretty sophisticated investors at some of those things.

You can agree to pay $X a month as a salary and set the agreement so that the agent is only to earn $X, if and when they earn any commission, then that amount is deducted from your payroll obligation, saving you that amount instead of paying it out.2.

The algorythms used by the credit companies are very sophisticated and sometimes make no sense at all..and are not easy to predict.

When starting up a new company and seeking funding, are you able to or is it taboo rather, to ask for payroll and/or operating fees during that start up?

Most people with cash to purchase real estate are sophisticated enough to search MLS.