It’s kind of like the jurisdictions where in order to practice RE brokerage activities, you must be licensed...but there are carve-outs for full time property manager/development company employees— they can still market and show homes in their portfolios without a license.

This is quite similar to an employee of Apple or Ford making a contribution to their company 401(k) plan.How you invest the Solo 401(k) must be entirely separate from you and your business, and may be into various assets that can be passive or active in nature - so long as they are engaged in at arm's length. 

It didn't occur to me at the time, but most of the people that were telling me I shouldn't become an agent were w-2 employees, risk adverse, and knew nothing about the business. 

Both have challenges, we have over 20 employees and are scaling upGino

We currently have no employees and no income.

The number one reason retail operations go out of business is because of location, not because of some terrible inventory that the tenant had or some bad weather or a bad employee.

Credit Karma is wrong, consumers accurately state their total usable assets less than 5% of the time, and the majority of Americans do not understand that if they get a 1099 then they aren't an employee. 

It's a hard method to pass on to an employee unless that employee happens to either be me, or have a similar level of skill....

Recently many restaurants are through Flagstaff are getting them due to a death of an employee in town. 

But the 2nd option is not for everyone, it is designed for those who are self-employed or own a small business without full time employees.