Lots will pipe in a say it's a piece of cake, maybe they only got lucky, hard to say but in my opinion luck is a luxury in this business and never something you want to ever depend on.

Writing your own contracts and collecting a commission on your own deals is icing on the cake. 

Sounds to me like he wants his cake and eat it too :) ... .sell it and get the equity ... but not really sell it. 

For the icing on the cake, I used Harry Potter stamps :)I'm assuming the bulk of the SW US letters have hit and the rest will be arriving in the next couple of days.So far, I've received about 20 calls back.  

New homes are popping up from vacant parcels like hot cakes in east Kensington, between front and Frankford, and selling high.

Others will differ, but I am of the opinion that for buy and hold SFR, cash flow is the icing on the cake.  

If less you may want to consider occupying one unit for more than 60 days.I'd also recommend self managing. 2 units is cake and will give you a valuable education.

Any extra cash would just be icing on the cake. 

All new 6 panel doors, crown molding in the kitchen, and the icing on the cake that got them rented... black hardwood floors.  

And that goes for buying through unaffiliated marketing companies.. that just adds another layer to the cake...