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. 

Today that small business with 3 employee/owners has turned into a sizeable Note Investment Fund with a staff of 30+ and counting.

I run a very large PM company ($50M+ portfolio, 60+ employees) & we wouldn't even take on a property that was that far away from our operation.