How do you Classify your Participation in the Real Estate Industry?

[Don Konipol]

I’ve thought a lot about this, trying to make sense of this massive industry.  From a PARTICIPANTS perspective I’ve decided that there are 3 MAIN (tremendous if not unlimited number of SUB categories) categories. 
   
 BUSINESS participant - broker, lender, appraiser, property manager, wholesaler, etc.   

INVESTOR (passive) - invest in REITS, limited partner or non managing member in syndications, private equity real estate funds investor, investor in real estate directly where financial advisor handles ALL aspects of asset and property management 

INVESTOR (active) - direct real estate ownership, syndicator, direct private lender, fix n flip, etc.

So, I operate MOSTLY in the INVESTOR (active) category, but I have constant involvement in both the BUSINESS aspect as well as the INVESTOR (passive) category.  

Which category(s) are you in? 

[Rene Hosman]

What a great question @Don Konipol ! I may steal this one for a poll sometime soon... 

Personally I am an INVESTOR (active), and a BUSINESS (I self-manage) and I'm looking at opportunities to invest passively by the end of this year. I'm getting a self directed IRA set up with Equity Trust and have been following J Scott and Brian Burke to learn more about passive investing and paroozing the passivepockets.com forums to learn more from everyday people who are currently passively investing.