At the beginning it never occurred to me that real estate would eventually eclipse what I made going to work.PS: I forgot to answer your "lessons learned" question.

On my side, 5 houses is typically going to be close to a $1M portfolio and we have 400+ investors who have eclipsed that number.  

Plus, the appreciation you will get out here will eclipse any cash flow you get from cheaper markets. 

Also check eclipse for rental license records.

The largest cities in the US are growing at less than half the rate of Columbus...in the next 50-years Columbus will eclipse locations like San Jose, Dallas, San Diego, and soon, Chicago...Full Report

As they age their stock portfolio will usually eclipse their house equity unless they add on or constantly remodel, etc or fail to save due to overbuying in the first place or bad luck.

And you have now updated eclipse system where you and/or your contractor can apply for any permit online. 

You can go on to their online portal "eClipse" and get most of your permits.

Now as the cases are rising rapidly in the USA at more than 10,000 a day and we will eclipse Italy in a few more days as 2nd highest count of covid19 cases, the stock market rallies on news of a bailout bill.    

My only hesitations are obviously all that's going on right now with COVID-19, and I just saw that the number of unemployment claims eclipsed 3.3 million last week.