I am not out there professing to be the end-all, be-all of real estate.

Don't let the latter convince you of how you feel about the former - give it some critical thought as I suspect even the professionals out there will tell you that the profession has its share of monotony and disappointments just like any other career.The way people talk, especially on RE Investing boards unfortunately, they sound like they would do anything for a living if it meant bringing in a lot of money.

Even though I made (and still make) good money in my profession (information technologies), I never had *any* extra money, always blowing it on hobbies, car payments, etc.

I see that it seems to be alegit profession.

I say "illegal" because that's a word that is being thrown out so much in the Real Estate profession these days.

:beer: I do not want my profession to interfere with anything here.

Why should someone with a maintenance free property pay higher management fees to cover the guy requiring three or four maintenance calls a month.Now clearly there are PMs out there screwing people everyday, just like in every other business and profession on the planet.

I find that real estate is a very non 9-5 profession.

I am a novice investor but I have been doing my profession for some years now.

Any profession requires it, if you're going to be a professional.