I'm now a licensed real estate agent with Exit Realty Metro (MN) and Homestead Realty (WI)) I am by no means rolling in cash (and proudly enjoy Sports Clips haircuts and obsessing about airline miles for my vacations) but real estate has helped me catch up on my retirement savings and provides a nice second source of income, which helps me stress less about taking on as many clients in my day job (or charging those clients a ton of money).My day job: I’m a political consultant that has managed campaigns, led field programs, designed trainings, or consulted on over 50 campaigns in 18 US states and 8 countries.

Looking forward to listening and learning, as well as participating.

The mini-split system will be your priciest option and has a decent amount of maintenance to keep it running at peak efficiency, but has lowest cost of operation. https://www.energysmartnola.info/home-ownersYou can find contractors that participate in the program on the website.

With the truly self-directed Solo 401k plan custodian is not required, you can have ability to make post-tax Roth contributions, borrow up to  $50K via participant loan and more!

If nothing more than you putting yourself out there as available to participate in the areas I mentioned above. 

However, a property located in Evansville, Indiana will not have nearly the same number of market participants, making it easy to get into the investment, but difficult to get out.5.

I would be interested to hear the input from local market participants on which markets, sub-markets have the best prospects on a 3-5 year hold. 

I like participating in the program as it works well for my business, but if I ever have to evict a Section 8 tenant it's highly unlikely that I would be able to collect against them in court, although eviction is an unlikely outcome for a properly screened tenant since they would lose their voucher and most would seek desperately to avoid that.

I do feel the only way to learn is to participate in the action. 

An investment with an experienced sponsor can mitigate some risks because you are participating in a larger acquisition than you might be able or willing to do on your own (which gives economies of scale), and you get to leverage the sponsor’s experience, judgement, track record, network and deal flow.But it also adds risks by adding an additional component not present in direct real estate investing:  the investment sponsor.