Even with a third-party involved, options that are functionally contract assignments ($100 option to buy some third party's property) are unlikely to survive scrutiny. 

How does RE fit into them?

Outside of work, I’m an avid traveler that has visited 54 countries (and love hearing travel tips), a martial arts fan with black belts in two martial arts, and I read a book every week (and always love good reading suggestions).How did I get involved with real estate?

@Joshua Dorkin, @Brandon Turner, @Dave Van Horn, @Mindy Jensen,  and whoever else at BP is involved in publishing -- Amazon.com offers a fantastic service called WhisperSync that coordinates the Kindle ebook with the Audible audio edition of the same book. 

Welcome @Robb Chamberlain,It's good to see more locals getting involved in real estate investing.

Turnkey can be a very good way to get started for an investor with little time to be more involved. 

Yes, there plenty of risks, bur before you even look at the risk involved, you will need to see if your house is zoned for a business such as a day care.This could be a problem in of itself...Chris

It has potential to even fit 5 units, or four spacious apartments and one commercial unit (I think a soundproof event space in the HUGE basement would be incredible).

While I've been involved in multifamily buildings in the past, I'm new to the commercial office/retail space, but am currently looking to purchase a smaller 5-unit property in town.While it's currently fully occupied, I'm always thinking ahead.

I get pretty involved myself as I know no one is going to care as much about my properties as I do.