Just keep in mind that being real estate agent heavily revolves around networking, so if your good at that your half way there.  

That and they are only a concept but have Ford heavily invested.

I'm heavily involved in the small multi-family game across the country.

When you flip, you don't get any of the tax benefits of real estate, as a matter of fact, you're taxed pretty heavily. 

It will also heavily depend upon your buying strategy and what kind of renovations/flips you are trying to do.

Partly because California is a heavily populated state, with lots of investors, and is known for being a very non-asset protection friendly state.

To add some conjecture to this topic, I'm of the opinion that the area in which you are heavily invested will also be dependent on the Start up community in the area remaining liquid.

My best recommendation would be to consider a niche you would want to go after and invest more heavily there than trying to stretch yourself too thin.

One of my partners is concerned that with the current economic climate the rates may go up to 11, 12, or 13 percent (or more...) which would cut heavily into cashflow and severely diminish our returns.

Now the performance of a STR is heavily depend on the market/area you are at.