Do not do anything that does not produce income.

If you love property management and want to start a business keep looking into it.Otherwise keep buying income producing properties to generate wealth.

On finding an agent, you make a completely valid point about the top producing agents.

These policies have been to the detriment of small businesses, the self employed and to large extent  true GDP producers.

>I'd look to invest in small multi-family 2-4 units with a larger down payment ~50% or more (only way to produce positive cash flow here at the moment) I never understood why one would want to buy cash flow.  

Those that use it seem to like it and - as a CPA - I like the reports it produces. 

There are times when we see deals on the table that won't produce any cashflow or not enough cashflow to meet our target hurdle rate but the tax benefits or appreciation potential may make the deal attractive. 

A friend of mine and her husband are working on a deal to combine an event venue and it will double as a film studio because they help produce a lot of films in Georgia.

Thus the more plants producing the more value.  

Make sure it’s updated though as the IRS will ask for it to be produced quickly.