It's a giant house of cards and only the first couple of cards have been removed at this point.

I know of one local contractor that does and that's only because of a giant markup and having a big enough bankroll to not worry

This is primarily (Read: exclusively) by using them for long-haul (European or Asian) airfare in premium cabins, paying careful attention to redemption rates.

One option to consider to gain more equity on the back end is a European waterfall; investors get a pref + 100% of proceeds from equity events until their capital is returned, after that point you could potentially have a more favorable split than with a traditional waterfall, say 60/40 or 50/50 instead of 70/30.

In 2021 I purchased my first home and was able to house hack, the property came with a giant garage that was converted into a studio apartment that has one tenant, which their rent covers my mortgage note.in the last 5 years I had two pieces of inherited land, one of which was ten acres in a flood zone, in a troubled area & another that is 1 acre on waterfront property.

I am sitting on cash and lost little in the stock market because I don't invest much there.What is giving me cold feet is the giant number of unemployed, the number of companies that will never be back, and the attitude of entitlement being sown by a growing segment of politicians and population in general............."

Of course the head of a giant company works to influence the prevailing powers that impact them DUH, that's what anyone with an ounce of intelligence does.

Also uncovering the secret black box of mortgage lending could give you a giant leg up on the competition as an investor.You mentioned "no professional experience in real estate at all"...the beauty of real estate is that its totally fine (and expected) to be in this position starting out... and the barriers for entry are very low!

I am an engineer having a 9-5 job with oil giant in Houston Texas area.

Something to watch out for next year will be how the Fed unravels it’s giant balance sheet.