On the other hand, that extra "dry powder" in hand would come in handy so likely higher reward too.

From my experience clients are very rewarding experiences, as you get a chance to bring someone else's dreams come to life, personally I love to take them through the process of a full renovation, everything from rendering to build, however, if you are not built with the proper infrastructure it is incredibly time consuming and administratively intensive.

These extra fees reward bad behavior IMO.

PUNT; IMO, the risk reward of RE license is negative if the MLS is your sole goal for RE license.

The reward would be taking care of my family.

While i understand that there are many challenges and hurdles to overcome when attempting to tackle a project like this, I also believe the rewards are well worth the work.

If you think the risk is worth the reward/closing on the deal, then lightspeed ahead.

I began looking further north to Baltimore, and it's evident that Charm City needs a helping hand.

Another option would be to make a capital contribution to the business which would be paid out to you before any distribution of profits (same idea, just no interest earned on your cash).Regarding how you are properly compensated for your risk...I'm assuming you'd reap 50% of the reward when you sell, right?  

They work for monetary reward.