A different mentality of simple unencumbered living is a plus for some.I suggest you research the demographics of the regional area, an hour's drive in all directions.

.* Hone your scoping skills and learn street mentality.* Continually work on making your rental contract relevant and well written.* Understand and abide by landlord-tenant laws, and know them better than your tenants do.

I wish investors would get past this "secrets" mentality already . . . in my opinion, it just doesn't hold water.Speaking of which: remember the famous saying, 'you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.'

They are targeting successful people so they don't have to do serious mental overhauls to reform years of conditioned self-destructive behaviors.

As to motivation, if you run and you don't get that "high" you're not running long enough breaking through that mental block.

Ok for those of you who have read my posts I am a rookie land lordand I put some pretty fancy doo dads in my rentals they are c rentals neighborhoods that are a little sketchy There are bars on all the windows I think I am using that rating correctly.but I have a hypothesis which is born from an experience while living in new york during the 80'smore on that laterI put the big pull faucets with the pull out sprayer i opted for bead board back splashes because they were cheaper I almost went with glass but ran out of moneyI did floating vanities in the bathroom with water fall faucetsand I put down laminate floors and I even did an accent wall the prospective tenants liked it all but what froze them in their tracks was the shower heada relatively inexpensive square glass rain shower headwith the delta armhttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003064FXY/that froze them dead they were so anxious to get the apartment the husband started jumping around and ran and picked up an empty krispy kreme box from the living room and wrote their email adresss on itthere is no doubt that the other renos made an impact but this shower head for the money is going to go in all my rentalsthe pure allure of it for what it costs pays huge dividendsnow on to my hypothesisWhile growing up in New york I noticed that in the middle of some of the worse neighborhoods were people who had apartments with the african art the smell of sandle wood or some exotic insence paintings on the wall and book shelves and some nice potterythere were bars on the windows and under the smooth jazz music you can hear the sounds of city life outside these folks had created an oasis within their apartmentsI believe that you can find these sorts of people simply by understanding who they are which doesent take much just start talking about life and things goals and aspirations principles of living and dichotomies and the truly intelligent grounded caring folks will emerge in your mind.people who may come from the ghetto but are somewhat elevated from that existencewhether through education or a realization that it goes no where a been there done that mentality and a desire for more from their lives.artists, educators, construction workers, part time poets full time city workerswhatever.

@Matt Ryan be prepared for every tenant to suddenly have a mental disorder requiring an animal.

But, it seems every agent/investor is saying how great it all works out for them, so I'll go with the getting the RE license route and forget the backdoor mentality, which I am in the process of acquiring.Thanks for all the great insights.

I used to do some work and convinced myself i was saving money, or that I liked to be on the job, managing the site or whatever...But Now on the very few days I go to job sites and pick up a hammer it is more of a day off, relaxing having fun with it and getting away from the mental grind of running the business. 

Good to hear Jamison... seriously if you just have a mental map of which markets to go into based on what a specific (or combination of) investment objective is and the characteristics of that market... you have a good start than many of the newbies or non consultants out there :)