Yeah, this is an outlier track, but that's the beauty of the question, all 3 answers are right for different people, for different reasons.I say this with trepidation, because I'm going against one of my mentors, William Nickerson (and you guys), but my situation is different than many, with a healthier W-2 and equity outside of real estate.

Consequently, if you’re looking around to network here it’s disproportionately newbie (as an ecosystem) so you’ll get that skew.

And with the REIT ecosystem there's the subset of publicly traded REITs that allow you to buy/sell at a moments notice.  

If I were renting out a place where I live (Encinitas) instead of where I invest it would be granite or quartz all the way because that's what the ecosystem looks for out here.

What you are buying is an entire apartment syndication eco-system.

I can't figure this out or know enough of the real estate ecosystem in cook county but why hasn't the long eviction process been shortened, especially when it really hits the pockets of landlords?

Not sure if you're looking only at real estate, but there's also a wider ecosystem of crowdfunding choices, including P2P loans (which arguably isn't crowdfunding per se, but certainly gets lumped in with other online alternative investing), equity crowdfunding (higher risk and much lower liquidity, but potentially greater returns if you're sufficiently diversified over time). 

. - Carrot: Full robust ecosystem w/ proven track record of more sites ranking in the top 5 in Google for motivated seller (land and house) phrases than any other system + robust training, support, community, and features to rank well in Google, fast loading sites, and high conversion.

So whenever I am looking for desert I try to stick to a healthier option like a piece of dark chocolate. 

Money can pay for better medical care, a personal trainer and healthier food.