You have to enjoy and reward yourself sometimes.

You will gain the rewards down the road.3) You 'should' claim rental uncome from any source.

Also F is very important because it shows you are focused on small things that can have big rewards over the long-term and you aren't complacent.

It will have ups and downs, you will make mistakes, but I have found real estate investing to be a rewarding endeavor. 

Some of my clients love the cash flow in the east side neighborhoods over by Slavic Village and Broadway selling between 90-110k with rents up to $1,800+, but just really depends on the types of neighborhoods you're investing in and your risk / reward threshold. 

However as you correctly point out this is far more risky and or its risk capital compared to buying a income property.. but the reward can be strati-spherically higher .. not just a little bit but it can be life changing profits on some of these deals.

I paid PMI which feels painful but if you keep your eye on the long term prize it's worth it. 

The Phoenix market, for instance, has been seeing shifts that reward creativity and timing.

As far as office I remain intrigued by it, also at least in our area condos have been brutally hit and I think offer a “deal” without quite the downsides to office, I tend to think office/retail in suburban and even pandemic boom markets (I’ve started investing on the eastern shore of Md and have considered some office deals there) offers the best risk/reward of office because you have a population boom coupled with ultimately still a low supply of office space, where as urban areas have lost population and have a huge glut of supply, I think the ultimate fate of a lot of urban office trends towards zero/land value. 

Im sure the cost is a hard pill to swallow but try and keep your eye on the long term prize of making $ on a thriving STR biz.