You might be better off thoroughly vetting your PM and if you aren't satisfied, start looking for a PM that you trust and aligns with your vision. 

I think it can make sense to use a license to aid in the REI, and align yourself with the right broker who is ok with that.

Also, the amount aligns perfectly with what I have left on the mortgage.

This helps to align incentives as if you just have a fixed late fee what is there incentive to pay once it is late until the next month?

Once you define your goals and align those with your resources, you'll answer this question for yourself.

first you have to decide what you want to do in the note business.. what most of the responses are talking about is buying bad debt.. and 2nds at that which this is the most risky and the most work..if your looking for work and risk and job then that kind of note investing is for you.If your looking for Passive income with no work and Limited risk then you simply need to align with a great HML who takes on private clients or those that understand where performing notes are generated.. we have done over 1700 performing notes for clients that last 5 years and really don't advertise at all. simply because once you get conservative investors in your program it just feeds itself.. deal flow is the key right now.. most have a hard time finding quality. finding defaulted seconds is easy.. and the most risky. 

Great, as long as the wife aligns with you on this, then awesome. 4.

The stars finally aligned this past year and I bought my first duplex.

There is a old saying about hand guns "proper grip leads to proper sight alignment", if you can't hold the gun right your probably not going to be able to shoot right.

I'm currently a branch manager at a bank...I want some stars to align (aka I'm getting married later this year), etc before I officially take the leap as a real estate investor but I still want to get as much out of it all as I can.