It doesn't make me a tax expert, just competent enough at filing what I do -- trust me, I've had a few letters when I started from the IRS catching little mistakes and telling me what my refund was really going to be. 

I don't want to spend all my residual time marketing, researching foreclosures and auctions, cold calling, and competing. 

I often ask people showing up at my open houses what they thought of competing properties, whether they charge any fees, so what I do was the result of my market research, and I never felt short changed.

As I'm reading "Why The Rich Get Richer" it has me thinking that it wouldn't be such a bad idea because you're increasing your knowledge on how to find good deals, and instead of just picking anything you can cherry pick by forcing yourself to have more patience while competing the assignment.

Rural was more competitive (seems weird to think that utility companies might compete with each other...) and didn't cross over a resident's land who wanted to put in a 12" pipe (entirely unnecessary, but he was planning that my paying for a bigger pipe would benefit him if he wanted to sell his bare land as single family home lots in the future. 

And then put the players to play so that they can utilize their expertise to help you on your journey. 

compete with REITs. 

Go llook at houses you're competing against. 

BP has a book on long-distance investing, and there a few players in your area who are doing this successfully.

I've done my due dil with search engines, but I was wondering if some smaller players could be more attractive and not necessarily visible on the web.