You can cut your teeth as a landlord, but it's on a small scale and more "forgiving".I moved to Cambridge because I had a girlfriend in Boston and hated commuting every weekend from southeast CT lol.

Now I Need to get focused and scale up my operation !

I have begun hiring out some of the paperwork tasks, such as mailing monthly invoices, but at our small scale there is only so much that can be outsourced short of hiring a property management company.

I'm a hands-on blue collar type landlord thinking about changing my business model to scale up my number of rentals.

Other things to look for with any brokerage is E&O insurance, involvement in real estate community/legislation, promotion scale, mentoring opportunities, mandatory meetings/floor time, 'hidden fees' (desk fees, copier fees, transaction fees, franchise fees) and marketing/lead generation tactics.

I think with your thoroughness and diligence, you have a great future as a small scale landlord..Best of luck (pick a good rental property).. look forward to following your progress...

Spoken like a true pro Account Closed ... you seem to have a similar philosophy and style as me, just executed on a much larger scale.

I know someone who does something similar on the other end of the prioce scale assistet living with a nurse on site.

You can learn more about residential type energy upgrades and smaller scale stuff at my website (in my signature for these posts).

But then again what are we protecting from... think realistically about the risks, too, as my driving has been far more risky than landlording on  a small scale (hit twice by reckless drivers in 13 years but never sued for lanldording knock on wood, not even an injury double knock)..