Newbie Seeking General Startup advice

[Michael Nichols]

Hello, I am looking to invest in Real Estate for the first time. I have been working hard and saving money for the past few years and finally have enough for a down payment for my first Property. At the moment, I have enough for a down payment on a $100k home, but will likely continue to save another 4-6 months to get pre approved for financing which I haven’t done yet (although I have pretty good credit around 750) and to also want to wait a bit to add more cushion to my emergency fund as well as my work schedule will be less hectic in 2019. 

A little back ground, this would be my first home purchase as well as my first investment. I'm single have no kids and I travel 2-3 weeks out of the month for my job. I would like to purchase a single family and house hack, currently live with 2 roommates so I will likely buy a home, rent two rooms to them and have them cover my mortgage/utilities so I can continue saving to invest in another property short there after. Looking to start with a 3 bed for under $100k (I could afford more but prefer to start small) which I have seen several properties under that in my area. I make about $70k-$80k a year and at my current lifestyle I can save 60% of my income very comfortably.  My reason for getting into real instate investing is to create passive income that I can eventually become financially independent from. I see myself buying less than 10 properties and suppose my ultimate FI number would be between $2k-$3k a month. My main concerns are I suppose are:

• * Best method to ensure the market I am looking into is good i.e. plenty of people are renting. I feel pretty confident based on own knowledge of the area but I would love to be able to back that up with data before purchasing.

• *I may possibly move internationally within the next year or two, should this stop me from investing or give me more reason to do so? Pros/cons of living abroad and owning rentals in the US?

• *General advice on getting over the initial fears of investing, I have worked long and hard to save this money and of course have done tons of research and will continue to do so. But can't help but have nervous thoughts about the what ifs in the back of my mind.

Thank you in advance for any help, I left out the basic stuff regarding financing, running numbers etc because there's a wealth of info here already regarding those just wanted opinions on these few thoughts that have been nagging me.