One thing that has been noted a couple of times is that property management is the key ingredient in your success. 

These are the key ingredients to success in RE investing, so if you lack any of them, get more involved here on BP and invite everyone you know to join and be active.

Patience is a key ingredient to making it all happen.

As such I consider Action to be a key ingredient to success.

I just would like to confirm that ambition and desire are the main ingredients that I need in this business.

Hello fellow members,As you know, building a strong team of trusted professionals is one of the main ingredients to growing your real estate portfolio and helping others to do the same as well if you're in the service industry.I'm currently looking for an excellent mortgage broker/agent/specialist.

That's going to be the key ingredient here if you are investing out of state.  

I'll let your neighbor @Johnson H. share with you the secret ingredient as he had witnessed it first hand. ;)

In my humble opinion, there's arguably three key ingredients to successful real estate investing...time, cash and credit and maybe you throw in persistence as well.  

But, before doing so, ensure that you have the ingredients to be successful and it begins with getting REI educated.Don't get bogged down with analysis paralysis.