For those who hold licenses and certifications in other professions, greater attention must be paid to legal and ethical aspects in real estate dealings.

The SEC defines a security as a contract in which an investor expects a return based solely on the efforts of a third party.

The bottomline, @Leo Semenov, is that you have to decide what how much risk you are willing to undertake and whether you have other viable options.This is a great place to learn about all aspects of REI so use the resources here and you'll be well on your way.  

Check out my profile for more detail, but the short version is: I was a Realtor/Loan Officer in HI between 2004-2006, so I understand that aspect.

When you hold a {rental} property in a corporation, income is taxed at the highest corporate tax rate - which increases the benefit of claiming the CCA deduction each year and mitigates the punitive aspects of the recapture.In addition to how you hold property, the length of the hold will also factor into whether you claim the CCA deduction; claim the deduction for a few years than stop; or do not bother to claim the deduction at all.  

My suggestion is to define why you want rental real estate and then you can source markets and asset classes that cater to your personal life goals. 

It would be nice to be able to define a radius and a time frame and then get a complete list of all sales during this time.

That aspect of it generally makes that type of financing slightly more expensive than a regular recourse loan, but usually not by much.

Skilled craftsmen are the backbone of the construction process, as they are workers who have experience with various aspects of the process and are generally able to carry out most repairs.

This would be a good step to define the amount of money to put into savings.