Do you pick line item by line item yourself, hoping you captured everything?

Pick one niche, one strategy, and do it until you are super good at it".  

I would pick the contractor and make the garage the way I want to match the house. 

Pick a solid B-Class suburban area.

So again, you need to decide for yourself what area of real estate you want to concentrate on first - get educated in it and start doing it, then pick up the next niche in RE and do the same, and so forth.

More of a “pick your poison”.

Interview a bunch of agents locally and pick a good one to represent your familyOh and its not legal to get a referral fee if you're not licensed, at least in my state, probably everywhere though I'd imagine

The Margin is fixed while prime rate floats and its typically interest only.As for fixed rate loan cash out refinance its fixed its great but downside is you pay interest day 1 even if you have a project to work on or not.Depending on how you plan to deploy and how much you think you'll be deploying you'll pick a fixed or a line of credit.

First keep educating yourself on content, then you may be able to pick a niche or investment style. 

Management is low margin and full of headaches...maybe not with only one property but even with one...picking the wrong tenant or not knowing how to hire the right repair contractor can cause problems and ultimately vacancy...vacancy kills profit...My two cents.Greg