I would say you need to play to your strengths, whatever those might be.

Bright MLS Chief Economist Lisa Sturtevant said it best: these incentives played a huge role in boosting new-home sales.

Welcome to the real estate investment game!

And then your REI income matches your W2 income the first time etcTo your question: equity is the name of the game.

I'm new to bigger pockets and more importantly I am new to the real estate game.

It’ll give you an easy to read view of how many of the points raised by Dan H and Chris S play out in a deal. 

Depending on the market, A game room can give you a similar ROI with much less liability. 

I have an 18 year old friend who plays competitive baseball and is a beast in real estate with his mentor. 

Retirement accounts are designed to be invested passively so when the IRS sees you running an active business in it, to level the playing field between retirement accounts and other business the retirement account incurs UBIT. 

I've tried a couple - truepeoplesearch, white-ages, property radar, leadsherpa, batch leads...Some services are better than others, but it is a numbers game and you also can cross check between different platforms.