I know my strengths: deal finding, spotting potential, bringing people together.

I think the most important lesson is to start investing in a position of strength financially.

For a 3 unit building with one unit as a commercial space/retail space I would use either a 7 or 10% vacancy factor and perhaps higher depending on the viability/business strength of the restaurant.

The house is great, great location and we remodeled it a little nicer than we originally planned given the strength of the location. 

Unfortunately, like most things, if your first foray into anything new goes poorly, you are likely to label everything about that thing as bad.But back to your REIT comments: while I do acknowledge both the strengths (generally more robust companies, highly liquid, lower risk investments and overall structure), there are some trade-offs.  

You need to determine what rate of return you would like to make it worth it for you (while of course keeping in mind what the market rates are in your area for interest rate and points - in the Phila area you can generally expect private loans to be in the 11-14% range and 2-4 points - but there are a lot of factors that go into the rate such as LTV, strength and experience of the borrower, 1st position vs. 2nd position, and so on).

It means the market's got some strength behind it.Checking out a market's past performance is crucial too.

Do you know what niche interests you the most that goes along with your personality and strengths? 

But there are so many factors involved, including the overall strength of one relationship.

How do you analyze the strength of a corporate guarantee?