Excellent info! 

I'd break down residential real estate like this (definitely some subjectivity here):A class area= High year-over-year price appreciation, excellent public schools (elementary school ratings are the most correlated to higher real estate prices), little-to-no crime.

It is not very difficult or complicated to evaluate commercial real estate, there are plenty of good books available that can teach you how, textbooks, online courses, community college classes, even excellent youtube videos etc, and it is actually quite enjoyable in the process to learn.

You've raised some excellent questions.

Yes, Evan Conner has been an excellent source for us in the Ozarks area of Missouri.

With your renovation background, you're well-positioned to excel in house flipping.

No reason stated I had great credit score cash on hand excellent properties.

That is all we use it for.Negatives are we still use home made Excel spreadsheets for business expense management. 

If you are in low to mid six figures say $250k a year -   you would need around $2.5  - $3M in cash to make the similar income consistently and without significant risk.Thank you, Chris, for your thoughtful insights—it’s an excellent point to consider the financial and tax implications of leveraging equity.

Granted we only have 17 but still, I’ve never used anything except a simple excel spreadsheet and all my rental properties have a separate savings account under my main account at my local bank.