They are generally conceived as bad, with exceptions to people having nightmares, but most of that likely has to do with bad screening. 

For example I am not a sales person so I brought in a rockstar to do that for us.  

It should just be the lender application which is vary straight forward from lender to lender unless your doing a construction loan. 

We came into land from doing mobiles, rehabs and now do a few modular projects each year. 

Do you have a CPA that is applying the tax code for your benefit?

so it's going to be tough to do as a side hustle where you just put in an hour here or an hour there. 

Learning from someone who is already doing it in your city would be the best next step.

Using your tech background to build systems and processes around your business is the key to scale.When I was getting started I wanted to do it all (wholesaling, flipping, brokering, contracting) and was unsuccessful across the board. 

Am I better off focusing on doing a flip or wholesaling rather than doing a buy and hold?

I am extremely interested in all things real estate but do not know how I want to pursue it after I graduate this year.