It is true I am interested in more diversified markets,  although more diverse, places like Houston (based on my research) still do rely heavily on O&G based jobs, what I found indicated around 30% which is significant.  

What did you decide to do re: the lease and the rent? 

There may be some nuances to real estate, but a properly established LLC should be able to do RE or anything else you want. 

Well for as long as in creative financing I would recommend this wich is what I am doing at this time to learn how to work out this part of REI...Listen to podcasts for creative financing (I love one that says that you are able to do RE with no banks at all)Read forums, post, ask the question (wich you are already doing) i have set up keyword alerts for creative financing and actually this post is one of the alerts i getWebinars, they always had helped me and encourage me to keep on track !

Combine easy money, with a hell of a lot of people wanting to quit their job and do RE and sellers who have seen nothing but gains and you dont have nearly enough good deals as there are buyers.

However, to do it right and make it perform better than stocks IMO, you will need to be willing to:Educate yourself and become intimately familiar both with your local market and the mechanics of the strategy you employ.Be willing to take on debt ... you can do RE with all cash, but at that point the returns vs stock market are frankly not that appealing.Be willing to be hands on, at least initially until you become familiar enough to contract out and scale up enough where outsourcing makes sense.Be willing to work with others as advisors, mentors, subcontractors, and/or employees.If you are willing and able to do the above, then I believe RE wins.

I do RE investing in a Texas military town...I see lots of folks try to sell with their zero dow, VA loan homes, and there's just not enough equity to make the deal work.  

In RE I have seen people as young as 30 that have quit their day jobs and focus on investing and now traveling more than retired people do. RE

It looks great to a lender -- bank, hard money, or private -- if you decide to pursue financing of any kind.While I know many people dream of dropping their day job to do RE investing full-time, I'd encourage you to leverage the credibility of your day job as you start to build cash flow and wealth.

Real Estate professionals are entrepreneurs above all. Plenty of professionals start off in Private Equity (PE), Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), Hedge Funds (HFs), etc.. and many have the end desire of starting...