People are making a killing doing short term rentals all across the US (Las Vegas, Denver, Seattle, Portland, Miami, DC, Austin) and it is much more profitable than a long term rental by a wide margin.

I wouldn't put in oil, but then, gas is widely distributed here.

I had similar goals when I started exploring various crowdfunding and alternative investment options a few years ago (though I also wanted to sprinkle in some more speculative angel/venture investments), and ultimately ended up making investments in more than a dozen different platforms across a fairly wide spectrum of asset classes.To the extent you want to make Real Estate a big piece of the Alternatives portion of your portfolio (and if you're looking for income, then that makes a ton of sense), @Ian Ippolito's site is a fantastic resource to help you with your due diligence.While some flavors of equity crowdfunding may not meet your income goals, there's a growing selection of offerings around business financing like revenue shares, receivables financing, and litigation financing as well that may be worth considering.

Platform performed due diligence and investor communication varies widely as well.  

You may, however, be able to track down the listing agent/brokerage who normally handles their listings and get a heads up before it hits the market and some insight into their pricing strategy.Pricing strategies also vary widely once it hits the MLS.

Obviously there is a wide range of properties one could purchase, but just a quick comparison between the single family home and a four unit property nearby.  

I finished my apprenticeship ten years ago in England and I now want to pass on as much of what I learnt to people here in the US.There is an estimated shortfall in construction workers of over 15m nation wide, alongside that, I see that when people begin to lose more jobs to automation they will look to re-train and perhaps take a career in construction.I want this program to hang and open many doors for as many people as possible.

Dodd-Frank is nation wide including Guam and the Mariana Islands. ;-) Dodd-Frank probably is going to be substantially changed coming up in the near future.

The title insurance that Civic Source offers with the properties sold on their site, is not widely accepted by banks/lenders.

My market area already needs one or two more appraisers and two of the other three are already in their late 60's.The state board freely admits they have a problem with the licensing process that is going to make a massive state-wide shortage, because licensees must spend at least a year under another appraiser.