I have family and friends that are involved in various area's of Real Estate and of course since I have decided to jump in, the advice I have been getting in numerous.

They would rather live off the land, the largesse of others, or through innumerable cons/schemes/criminal activity.

@Jon Schwartz1) To begin with 3 million FMV in California captures innumerable small business owners standing entirely on its own, but if that weren't bad enough, the valuation standard is actually aggregated across all properties owned so it's not in fact in excess of 3 million per property making it much worse still.2) Commercial properties have a very suspiciously expansive scope in the initiative (the devil is in the details, as is typical, and here as well) thus capturing both mom and pop businesses and in many cases even agriculture.3) Unsurprisingly those proffering the provision have acknowledged it is but a first step, once they get their foot in the door with passage of the initiative they will shoot for full repeal of Prop 13 targeting all real estate owners.4) But you make a really great point, sell it as tax on fat cats (while in reality it's scope will hit many many small businesses) makes it palatable to a largely uninformed electorate and further softens them up for delivery of the really big hammer when they shoot for full repeal of Prop 13.

The Finance Friday episodes are a review of listener finances from an outsider perspective.Some episodes may reference previous episode content, but you don't have to listen in numeric order. 

If you could focus on a couple of markets and buy a few properties in them, that would be much more efficient that buying single properties in numerous markets.

You can make money via real estate in numerous ways so evaluate your own skills and goals and map that to a real estate strategy.

Beginning to explore how to manage STRs in numerous geographies outside the U.S., curious what people's experiences have been? 

This is also where things start go sideways in numerous directions.

Lastly, during the negotiation process is where a realtor can really set themselves apart to work towards your desired price in order to get you that "deal".At this point, you may be expecting a little too much but they can bring value to the relationship in numerous other ways. 

My guess would be they are slow to adjust in numerous markets given their age but that is just a presumption.