It's perfectly fine to work with friends and family but I would advise you to pick a full time agent to make sure they're competent in the market and have the skills to negotiate the best deal for you.

A good example is someone who gets into active flipping and they want more time with their family... flipping is fine if you have a path to reinvest that income into passive assets... not fine if you are living off the income because you now have another job. 

You might know the infrastructure is new, or fine, and where it is, or live in a new development etc.

@Phil Denton, a Regional Bank is fine too.

When you're starting small it's fine to do it that way IMO. 

You will be fine and will qualify for 1031 Exchange process as long as you can explain why you had a short-term hold.

Once you get an area narrowed down you should be fine.

And that's fine.

If you work hard and are consistent you’ll be just fine.

It will probably be fine.