Yes. Having the right partners, and consultants and contractors on your team is paramount to managing risks. 

• Property development is the process of creating and manufacturing a new product to sell. This can include subdividing land to create new empty lots (land blocks), new houses, apartments, townhouses, rooming accommodation/boarding houses through to other more commercial property development types such as medical centres or shopping centres. Do you have to sell? No, you could be your own end-customer of your development and hold the assets as an investor. 

• Property investment is the activity of building wealth through holding property as an investment class. Other investment classes include high-interest savings accounts, publicly-listed equities (shares in the stockmarket), holding physical gold, cryptocurrencies (e.g. Bitcoin), superannuation etc. As with all investments, property as an investment carries an element of risk and various mitigation strategies are available. Please note that this is not financial advice, and you should discuss your circumstances with a licenced professional and trusted advisor. 

• Active property investment: You purchase a residential property, such as a house, apartment, townhouse etc. and you actively manage the property yourself. You are responsible for securing a tenant, undertaking the vetting process, be aware of local residential tenancy laws (forms and processes), handle inspections etc. You are directly responsible for organising and funding any upkeep and maintenance expenses. 

• Passive property investment: You purchase a residential property, such as a house, apartment, townhouse etc., and engage a third-party rental property manager. Depending on your location and market, a rental property manager may charge 5% to 9% of the weekly rent for the purposes of managing your property and looking after tenants. Items that fall under a landlord's responsibility, you will still be financially responsible for any upkeep and maintenance expenses. 

• Active property development:  You pull a deal together managing the many different aspects, you purchase a property, you undertake town planning approvals, you develop detailed engineering drawings and designs, you find a builder, you supervise the build quality and progress, you sign off at close out and manage handover procedures. It can be stressful, but the efforts can be rewarded by your results. There are aspects described that you can let others manage on your behalf, as there are more moving parts in property development, naturally there is a spectrum of how active or how passive you can be in property development. 

• Passive property development: You let someone else take care of the property development process and you share in the returns. It is possible to be a passive property developer. 

• Purchase shares in listed Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) such as the Australian United Office Fund (ASX:AOF). Not investment advice. 

• Be a "hands-off" money partner for development deals.

• Delegate property development responsibilities to a trusted development manager. 

Yes! Between myself and my family we own roughly $15 million worth of real estate across Brisbane and Redland City that we manage directly ourselves.