It's powerful and it's rewarding both from a monetary and personal satisfaction standpoint.

There are a couple of passive options that come to mind that offer different levels of risk / reward;1) Participating in a syndicate - Spend your time vetting syndications / syndicators that fall within your investment envelope (e.g. 50K, 250K).

I did this recently with a 3 fam property, where I only put down 8%, allowing me to buy more property than I had previously with less $ than I needed conventional. a little bit of a harder search, but more rewarding for sure.

{this focuses on residential real estate}Douglas Gray - "The Canadian Landlord's Guide"Steven Cohen & George Dube - "Legal, Tax, and Accounting Strategies for the Canadian Real Estate Investor"@Julie Broad - "More than Cashflow: The Real Risks & Rewards of Profitable Real Estate Investing"   I had already been investing for several years before Julie's book came out, but believe a new investor would gain more benefit from the book.I am not a fan of Don Campbell's writings {it may be style thing} or his ACRE scheme and RIEN network which sells "guru-style" education, but there are many who have read his books and do like them.Don Campbell - "Investing in Canada: Creating Wealth with the ACRE System"If you want a resource for commercial real estate in Canada:Pierre Boiron and @Claude Boiron - "Commercial Real Estate Investing in Canada: The Complete Reference for Real Estate Professionals."

I've learned that our government actually rewards those who employ others as opposed to being an employee yourself.

They want to see how much they can make and how hard to make it just like an investor analyzes the risk/reward of buying a property.Being states away is tough as the broker/agent might feel you will try to buy and then see an area and pass on the property OR you might want to do a ton of research upfront to get acclimated to an area which is understandable.

“House hacking” a 3 bedroom 2 bath house was daunting at first, but also very rewarding.  

The 6-yr payback seems generous...as does the interest rate...this is not a conventional situation and you are assuming a lot of risk...you should be rewarded.

Never say never, just balance risk, reward, and your solve for the problem at hand.

Yes I charge myself very high labor costs and reward myself with free food from Wendy's, Chili's and sometimes Texas Roadhouse if I'm lucky.