The clean up costs were 2/3rds of the budget for the entire job . ( I felt sorry for the guy )  The addition was never built .The one thing you forgot , a good contractor will properly vett a customer and also ask for a drivers licence , check to make sure he is the legal owner of the property , check for judgements and liens , and how many lawsuits the customer has been involved in . 

He took our personal and confidential information including drivers licenses, social security numbers, bank statements and other sensitive information we gave him to prove we were worthy to fund HIS deals and he purposely and maliciously violated the signed confidentiality agreement by putting it all on the dark internet.

My duplex 30 minutes outside of Boston went from a total rent of $3600 a month to $4,100, with 20+ solid qualified applicants in a week.I'm sure this is very similar to a lot of the major cities around the US, but as people mentioned earlier in this thread, it depends on your market and what the key drivers in the area are.

Agents are like drivers - just because they have a license doesn't mean they're any good. 

Economies of scale is a huge driver in REI and partnerships allow that.

The driver of these is also the liquidity available, which is at all time highs.

Cool idea if cash-flow is your main driver and there are no fees. 

My wife gets referred a buyer from our Town Car driver who has been taking us to and from the airport for 15 years.. a Recent Heiress.Looking for high end home.. but no real clue.. long story short she shows ne 4.4 mil house on sat another 6.8 on Sunday on Monday they write up the 6.8  buyer wants to pay full price ..

Carried interest makes hedge fund managers' income more important than a teacher's or bus driver's. 

You literally post daily:“There are other smaller markets like Dayton, Akron, and Toledo, however there is not alot of economic drivers to those areas.”