It could be a great asset in growing/maintaining your personal wealth.  I

I had a lot of equity before 2008 and have less now, but my cash flow is better.The true wealth is not the equity, the true wealth is the future cash flow that you will be generating discounted at the desired rate of return.To make 1m net per year, you will need to turn 100 properties per year, and make 20k on each, pay overhead and taxes and you will get 1m.Or you can buy a distressed apartment building, fix it up, rent it out and refinance at CAP of 6% and pull the cash out.

Keep doing what your doing, slowly building up that portfolio while working the 9-5 & you will be very wealthy later in life.

I have had amazing opportunities to witness the life of the wealthy first hand, and I would like to create that freedom from myself.

So many people who bought 15, 20, 30 years ago in the emerging neighborhoods of Manhattan and Brooklyn have become incredibly wealthy just based on that.And as many others have pointed out, there are always deals.

I have looked into real estate trusts and from what I read it is really only beneficial if there are multiple owners and if I were super wealthy and didn't want anyone knowing I was the property owner.

There will come a time when some wealthy investor will take the torch and renovate the area, but right now no one is renting there that values their belongings, car or well being.

im really interested in hearing success stories, how wealthy realestate investors started.

I am thinking that good insurance coverage and an umbrella policy might be all I need.Many wealthy people put everything into Trust's, Corp's and LLC's.

Your on the "Get Wealthy, Slowly" path.