Also, I believe one has to constantly work on improving oneself.

Drucker - lot's of books on the subject, but "Managing Oneself" is a great start.

If a person can't fire oneself up enough to learn on his/her own for free, he/she probably is not ready to pay $1000 for a seminar either. 

My home: Meraki [Greek- μεράκι] - To put a little of oneself into what you do, whatever it may be.

A couple things aren't clear from your post.First, you distinguish between condos and apartments.

Aside from real estate being very local, some general principles I follow that serve in any economy :1- Follow proper underwriting principles based on my specific investment style ( value add etc..)2- Use leverage to my advantage but never over leverage my position.3- Keep proper cash reserves.4- Educate oneself in the economy of the market I’m investing in, including jobs, changing demographics, historical cycles etc...5- Surround myself with the proper team members who will cover the areas I am weak at and are real experts in their niche. 6- Knowing when to cut my losses.7- I use real estate investing as a way to achieve more important milestones In life including family, health etc... this keeps me focused on the big picture and adds more objectivity to the process.8- The bigger the portfolio, the more risk one gets exposed to in a turning market and the harder it gets to change direction.

Those areas are also very distinguishable, block by block. 

Back in the day, the Goodrich Tire Company distinguished itself from the Goodyear Tire Company by saying "we're the ones without the blimp" and Avis competed with Hertz by saying "we're number two, we try harder."

However, selling your contract for a markup is pretty hard to distinguish from a net listing - and as I'm sure you know, that's illegal in MA (and I think in all 50 states).If you offer on a property for yourself, you must clearly disclose that you're a licensee. 

I am a property manager (I like to say rental investment manager to distinguish ourselves from the rest.