Ever since being introduced to REI from my best friend I have been staying up countless nights watching podcasts and reading as much literature as possible and I want to keep learning until I feel comfortable enough to work towards that first deal.

Hey everyone,I've read countless books, magazines, articles, attended seminars and webinars on every aspect of real estate investing.

There are countless HML on this site with reviews etc so you do not have to play the guessing game. 

For example, if you assume 0% appreciation, because betting on appreciation is speculative, then you still have made an assumption about future appreciation that you could be wrong on and may either be conservative or extremely aggressive depending on the market you are in ... there are countless examples of mid-west rust belt markets where the appreciation has been less than zero after factoring in inflation, whereas an appreciation assumption of 4% in a market like SoCal has historically been quite conservative over just about any long term (decades) holding period. 

After spending countless winters in Chicago I can understand why you moved to San Francisco. :)If you don't own any property, have you considered buying your first property as owner occupant?

I’ve had countless clients come from the people I met in college.

She is afraid she is going to spend countless weekends showing you homes and then you decide to call another agent one day when she isn’t available and buy a house and she gets nothing.

So when I find a thread like this with countless negative reviews and lawsuits that is reason enough to look elsewhere. 

Even if I had some disaster money sucking deals to begin I wouldn’t let that stop me... because AGAIN I’ve heard countless stories in the podcasts/forums about people starting terrible then recovering and thriving.

It's relatively simple and would give you substantially more credibility.There's nothing wrong with being a consultant, but I've seen countless unlicensed Real Estate "consultants" engage in actions that require a license - not intentionally or maliciously, moreso by ignorance.