This will make your broker nervous because your limited exposure to sales actually increases his/her risk to liability and getting sued.  

So I'm relatively comfortable and well on my way in developing my design and construction experience and am looking to get some exposure to real estate and financing.

If you then go make other investments at current high market prices, you have greatly increased your exposure to a downturn.Of course, it's possible this bull market in property continues indefinitely.

It's all about exposure to sources of information.

But it goes to show you this definitely NOT risk free.If you are going to play you really want to diversify your risk, either by doing a dozen or so deals and/or partipacting in a fund which gives you exposure to several properties.I'm going into my third year doing this and been pleased, that being said i only has maybe 2 exits and the rest is still in progress but I am getting my monthly/quarterly checks so that's nice!

It will also limit your exposure from vacancies.

With my limited exposure to the real estate investing community, I've learned that 'wholesalers' hold contracts with the sellers and transfer this to other investors or buyers.

I have some exposure to real-estate investments through my parents' acquisition and rehab of a few buy-and-hold properties here in the area; and luckily, they have offered to help financially with my first couple deals.  

(Ben Graham's "The Intelligent Investor" is perhaps the best volume on the subject), and I'll suggest that the core "value investing" philosophy is a direct corollary to the REI adage of "you make money when you buy, not when you sell", in that you make your money when you buy a stock when its undervalued and includes a sufficient "margin of safety" (itself the analog of a lender capping their exposure based on LTV).Patience, prudence, curiosity, and a desire to learn are hallmarks of a successful investor in any domain, and I'm with you in that I'll keep doing both :)

Therefore if you decide to make snow removal the tenant's responsibility, you are letting them control your exposure to the liability related to slip/fall accidents.