It really all depends on the amount of risk you want to involve yourselves in. 

Mostly due to the fact my spouse and I agreed on her to have zero involvment in any sort of RE investing (and its our home) I think once you have a good 6-12 months of reserve cash (operating expenses for your own life saved as a back up incase things go bad) save enough liquidity to get the ball rolling on your first invesment.

I personally benefited from this when I first started and now provide my signature to partnerships I am not as actively involved with.

HOA management for a bunch of peripherally involved out-of-town investors is probably a great opportunity pass along overpriced contracts to your local buddies. 

One of the biggest challenges for everyone involved is being on the same page about the actual time required for maintenance.DIY landlords rarely properly track their time when it comes to property management in general - tracking their true time invested in maintenance is where they perform the worst.Investors that hire PMCs are rarely any better at understanding the true amount of time maintenance takes.

Originally posted by @Joseph Binkowski:Hey BP Community -I was sitting-in on an investor presentation for a syndication of an attractive 320-unit Class B MF development in a fast-growing market, and then I realized... it was a 506c project for accredited investors only [which I am not.. yet:)]So then I began thinking...How can I possibly get involved?

The value added should be significantly greater than the cost of the effort to compensate for the effort involved and the risk. 

Much less paperwork involved with a DSCR compared to a traditional mortgage if you're familiar with that process!

I happen to be looking for gap funders myself for a number of my house flip projects in Houston, TX and finding gap funders or any kind of private money involves a lot of networking and putting myself out there to meet potential lenders.

We act as GC on our efforts but we have gotten tired of the effort involved.