Also the Adelson family of Las Vegas Sands fame have purchased a couple of big parcels with hopes to build a giant casino/convention resort perhaps anchored by the arena for the Mavericks for which they also just purchased majority ownership from Mark Cuban. 

Playing an appreciation game can be risky.

The local casino just replaced free charging with 50c/kwh (4-10x the home price.) when they figured out people were just leaving their car there to charge while they went home.

The marketing isnt that important in my opinion but the professional photo/ video is a huge game changer and I dont believe that someone is going to make much profit at .5% on the listing side.

This is why you need to do a ton of due diligence on them and make sure they have skin and the game and something to lose.

Not know what Eddie Speed is all about, is there a game plan you have for notes?

Play the long game and focus on rent and home price appreciation.

Alternatively i could go for being a real estate broker and try to get experience in actual real estate without putting too much of my own skin in the game.

Real- Estate  is a lot tougher game now because of technology now allowing buyers, sellers to access the market using the internet without using agents but  you do have hot areas that can support  more bodies .

hope this helps. turnkey might be a good fit for you. but real estate is a long game.