It's really that straight forward. 

Quote from @Alexia McIntyre: If your current job allows you to save $5,000 - $10,000 a month, then I would keep that job until you've built up a portfolio big enough to replace your income.It doesn't seem wise to walk away from a good career and straight into real estate when you don't know if you have what it takes to make it work.

Get it straight from he horses mouth.

Nights you don’t want booked maybe repairs or deep cleans like a professional grade carpet cleaning or something of that nature is different as running 100% occupancy for more that a few months straight can be hard on a property and it needed time to breathe.

I started off with a straight investment property (25% down payment), then house hacked my next two properties. 

Using a loan for a personal residence makes obtaining financing straight forward and easy convenient to get.

Its a straight forward process and not as big of a task as one might think. 

Screening for the tenant buyer is NOT straight forward. 

The “fund” reports its status as an Opportunity Fund simply by filing form 8996 with the entity’s first annual tax return.The difficult part usually is navigating all the rules in order for the project to qualify, but that can be relatively straight forward for new construction and projects involving a substantial rehab.

@Bruce Lynn To most people on this thread I would say if you have at least $25k & our at least a sophisticated investor & have 5 years or longer why not consider two things, syndications in mobile homes or multifamily & investing in straight rentals in Oklahoma & Kansas for straight cash flow & high cap rate operating aka above 7%!