Not to say that the leap is not worth it, but commercial can be very capital intensive - as Joel pointed out - and achieving a desirable diversification level (since you are going to depend on the income, if I understand correctly) in a safe manner, even using leverage, might take a while.

Need to have more options and diversification within notes.

For my own Buy and Hold strategy I have turned to something that is truly passive, and with instant diversification.  

It creates instant diversification for each portfolio and one can invest in multiple portfolios for a minimum of $10k each.  

In that context, what REI offers you is diversification, which is also valuable, but don't count on beating the market.

The statement that I made did clarify a little diversification: Put your saved, liquid, money into a business venture, real estate investment, or both for that matter.

You're approach makes a ton of sense because as a generalist you are able to hedge your bets through diversification.

In regards to contributing to your 401K, it's all about diversification (not 100% real estate or stocks etc).

Diversification is not a bad thing.Lots of choices are available after that in terms of what to do short term.Jerry

I'm hyper-analytical about everything I do, which certainly has benefited me, but has also tripped me up.I'm interested in RE as a method of diversification, rather than a get-free-quick scheme.