Rather, concentrate on living below your means, start religiously reading the bogleheads forum, start saving, and when you do invest, invest only in Vanguard index funds. 

I suggest heavier concentration on types of contracts and negotiating profitable deals.

Maybe some smarter minds than me could come up with a "2%" rule for the Bay Area - something that concentrates around cash flow with an emphasis in the appreciation game. 

It might be smarter to pay him something during the project if it lets him concentrate on your project alone.2.

It also doesn't hurt to do a few concentric circles around the property and take pictures of the general neighborhood.

Concentrate on the markets you know.

This is straight from the outline from our Fund's acquisition manual that I am writing:Avoiding rent controli.www.nhmc.orgii.City government or local apartment associationiii.Likely in1.Tenant majorities2.Liberal majorities3.Concentration of senior citizens4.Privately-owned, high-rise, apartment buildings5.More than 100 tenants above national median incomeNote that the information above contains useful resources and evidence that the locale is tenant friendly as opposed to landlord friendly.

If you network with the right people it really is not difficult and you should easily be able to do it in your spare time.As a real estate agent, you should concentrate on retail sales to make the most commission for the least amount of work.

What do the concentrate in?

Let's see...To this point I have been concentrating on buy & hold condo properties, despite the potential HOA nightmares.