REITS and stocks are passive and real estate is active. 

I'm from Leesburg, an active-duty Air Force member, too (retiring soon).

It's not illegal provided you're dislosing it to all parties and not trying to actively hid it.

Because with an HOA in tow that means your not doing it alone, you have active "partners" who will be taking care of a slew of things so think of it like training wheels. 

We have 3 boys who are actively in sports and the location of the house just doesn't work out for us. 

I spent a decade in advertising, before founding and running a custom wood shop for another decade, so 'm pretty good at the self-promotion.I agree with you that the more gorilla approach would be most effective and that's actually what i've been doing – calling RE agents in my service area with active listings, introducing myself to property managers and leasing agents...To answer your question, I will have to handle the work myself for 6-12 months to build out the SOPs and field service management systems, but I have a lot of relationships for those looking to "do the work".I'll check out the meet up and would love to grab a cup of coffee, I'll shoot you an email.

I'll try to be more active on here :)

While I’ve completed six transactions, I now primarily use my license for referrals rather than active practice.

The plan includes high-yield activities such as property flips and strategic acquisitions to provide liquidity and generate returns.

What I can share is that the risk-reward will not be worth it as a 'newbie' due to your limited capital and inability to actively manage your properties.