A good chunk of my career of day jobs has been in analyzing data and forecasting the future.

My overall goal for my professional career is to start an investment firm and own a big multifamily portfolio and get into development.

I knew legislation made CD for residential property too risky with violations too easy and consequences too harsh with compliance too difficult and uncertain so no attorney or title company will get involved.  

I think the problem is this...Legislation and government is making it too difficult to be a landlord.

But it's difficult for me to just hand over money to someone I've never met, when I have so many friends (and have read so many stories here) who have been ripped off by contractors.How can I protect myself?

Hey Bigger Pockets community, I'm just starting out in Step 1 (get educated) on what I want to become a successful career in real estate investment.I also currently run an e-commerce business that is currently completely online, but would benefit from having a brick & mortar storefront, and I had an idea that maybe using the investment capital I'm looking to allocate into real estate into a commercial property my business can operate out of until I decide to sell the property in or rent it out to another business.I am obviously very naive when it comes to the complexity of any good real estate deal (especially commercial VS residential), but I'm hoping to spend as much time learning from everyone here who is on their journey as well.My main concern with the idea of buying commercial to operate my business out of it that I might struggle to rent it out afterwards and that there may likely be depreciation in the commercial real estate market over the next 5 years.I understand there is a lot of nuance depending on the local market but I'm guessing commercial is even less of a "safe" bet than finding a solid residential deal to leverage in some way.

Finding talented preparers was difficult and took longer than expected.

Otherwise, it's very difficult to find a property that is cash flowing well.

I do plan on getting into land one day, just have to get a little further in my career first.

And as you go through a career you learn what you like and are good at and what you dont like and are no good at..