However, I am confident that I would be able to successfully generate buyer and seller leads at scale using Google/Facebook/Instagram ads, so I am tempted.I've also thought about using my marketing experience to get leads for distressed properties and then wholesale them, but again I'm a newbie when it comes to investing in real estate, so I don't even know if that's practical in my area (Seattle).Are there any other paths I could take that comes to mind?

Wholesaling as you may or may not know is a way of investing in real estate by placing properties under contract typically at below market value with the sole purpose of transferring that contract to a cash buyer at a...

 A gradual increase may have been a more successful approach.  

Good, caring PM's exist that want owners to be successful while still making an honest dollar.I was with an attorney for a very large flat fee ($75.00 per month) PM firm one day and he was proud to convey that the average gross per door was $250 per month and the average tenant duration was 8 months. $75.00 per month is clearly total BS marketing and if I had an 8 month tenant duration I would be pissed as an owner.I take great pride in the service we provide with only 2 fee's to owners, a lease up fee and a % per month.

If you want to be a RE investor, you can't be successful by doing such low cash flow investments.

He believed he owed much of his success as a writer and researcher to being married to his wife, and in study after study he found that exactly the same is true for most people who managed to accumulate real money in the USA.Although The Millionaire Next Door is Stanley's most popular book, there are a lot of insights in the other books he wrote as well.

Understand your local market, the economic drivers behind its success or failure and make your decision. 

We are renovating our rowhouse basement in and will be digging down about 2 feet to achieve 8-foot ceilings and need to underpin.

@Candido Trinidad I’ve had good success with US Bank.

What are some things you wish you had known when you started off in the industry?