The manager I have now makes a ton of money, but he's "on" pretty much 24/7, has a lot of folks working for him, and thrives on that workload (very much the authoritarian/workaholic type).

My fantasy deals for residual income purposes would be:a five star hotel having 120+ rooms with all of the lovely amenities, on-site restaurant... doesn't matter which U.S. housing market so long as its a thriving one.Condominium building with 20-30 units in Philadelphia, PaAn extravagant resort in the Carribeans, maybe my own island.

Be prepared to compete with those guys or try your best to become one of them if you want to survive and thrive in this business.

The big question: could I survive, let alone thrive, as a self-employed real estate investor?

All,My uncle was recently thinking of selling one of his properties in a thriving market in Indianapolis.

The disease doesn't like... harbor itself in vinyl and grow and thrive and plot revenge until a baby inevitably licks the ground.

That's the bad part about thriving areas, where Longview has cash flow opportunities but no appreciation opportunities (unless or until they figure out how to make it a community more people want to live in).

I hate to let people know how thriving the Denver market is if you understand the focus on the urban core here.  

On the flip side, it is such a shame to see  a community with potential to thrive looking like that.

Or do you thrive more on meeting Sellers & Buyers & putting them together in a deal- meaning you're a numbers cruncher/math minded person?