There's no real hard and fast way or only 1 way or doing your first 2 points. your subject line suggests you're not looking to go to a large shop like a JLL or a CBRE which honestly I don't blame you those offices are usually pretty bloated.As far as monthly costs, if you are going to individually get a costar or other such license you are probably looking at $500-$1000 a month pretty easy in overhead once you have office dues, mls dues, marketing, etc. 

I have lived and worked real estate in both Fayetteville and Phoenix currently in Mesa.They are both great but the strategy is a little different.

This is why I am here and love the real world experiences and feedbacks.

With that, I want to ensure that my approach to real estate is starting with the niche that generates faster returns from the beginning) as a rough example:I can buy Focal Utopia headphones for 8K or I can buy headphones from kmart for $25.

I can see an explicit exception in CA Tax Code § 17561 that says you can not use the qualifications in Section 469(c)(7) (Real estate professional) to render that income as non-passive, but I see no callout for 1.469-1T and, as such - as a non-CPA - I do not (yet) see a reason why we cannot follow the same rules for CA that we do for our federal taxes; e.g., if the business is not a "rental" business per tax code, we count that income as non-passive and offset other income (W2, etc) similarly.Does anybody else have some guidance (or opinions) on this matter?

BiggerPockets has a decent system for finding a real estate broker in any given area.

How do we stay in the real estate game while minimizing our risks? 

I only recently became licensed, so I would have a long way to go in order to comply with the 2-year experience requirement, but I have been an active investor for 5 years so I am wondering if I would fall within the 3 year exemption, below:- Have at least two years of experience as a licensed real estate salesperson or at least three years of experience in the general real estate field or a combination of both- Meet the minimum points required for the experience type (e.g., buying and selling your own property, managing property owned by your employer)Thanks in advance! 

In Real Estate, TIME IS MONEY.Getting a rehab loan done quickly is worth paying an extra few points in order to be efficient as you will be able to expand your BRR business which would yield results greater than the increased cost of capital that hard money brings.In order to escape a scarcity mindset you need to understand that money is in theory unlimited, they print it.But can you print time?

It is a great way to get started in real estate investing all while buying yourself your own home.