This forum is not about stocks, but I actually find it very useful to study balance sheets and income statements of publicly traded companies in other industries to get a sense for how they manage leverage and risk ... it is insightful to see utility companies leverage way up since their income streams are so steady while tech companies tend to have little to no leverage since their income streams can change at the drop of a hat (good or bad) with new innovations, and yet they can both still be very profitable.

On a side note, the real estate industry, is starting to look a little like 2006.

I am currently employed as a senior sales engineer, and my job is to program and sell capital equipment within the industrial automation and manufacturing sector (I figure out ways to reduce labor costs in factories by replacing people with machines.

Then add 30% to your cost estimate, which is a standard uncertainty factor in the construction industry.

What's a reasonable commission percentage in the industry? 

I've been involved in about every trade in the construction industry over the last 15 years.

I've been involved in about every trade in the construction industry over the last 15 years.

Crowdfunding makes real estate easily accessible, however, in regard to institutional real estate investments, the advice of an expert who works in the industry every day, knows all the players and their track records, and performs due diligence on each offering is a great benefit to you and comes to you at no cost.

One of the advantages that you have is that you currently work in property management, so you probably have a good list of contacts in the RE industry.  

You could be looking at a property for $50k while the ones across the street are selling at $120k and you would thing it's a deal, but in reality the $50k house is a dumper/is next to an industrial property/higher crime area/etc.