Risk - Reward and caution.

I do reward my contractor with a bonus when the job is finished as scheduled4) you need to carry vacant property insurance during rehab, I found it quite costly.

And then their are PPM type funds were you can invest in the PPM that then invests in TDs and Notes..... this could be an excellent way to learn as well as the PPM will have detailed information on the formation, risk ,reward etc of the particular note investments they are doing.Lastly most of the crowd funders are doing some sort of new originations and they have disclosure docs that you could learn from ... though you need to be accredited in most instances with these folks.. but you will find bigger funds that take non accrediteds.

Can anyone care to share some ideas on how to lower the risk (even if it means to lower the possible reward)?

LA is kind of the opposite, low and slow monthly revenue with a more generous reward of appreciation down the road. 

It does however allow me to collect all rewards.

@Spenser MurphyTaking out a HELOC against your own home is a little risky, but the rewards are worth it.

Your post implies that you want a career in real estate and a college education is not necessary to have a rewarding and successful career in real estate. 

To minimize that, consider the ways it can go wrong, assess the probability of that thing happening, if possible have a plan B to combat against it, or hedge against it in another way, insure against it, mitigate it, or otherwise figure out how to actively avoid the risk and still get into the investment, and after all that then decide if the total risk is worth it balanced out against the reward.

I reckon: too much risk for too little reward.