How would my particular situation affect property analyzing?

[Jaxon Packer]

I'm currently in the Navy at a shore training command in Charleston, South Carolina. For the last 6 months of the training we are required to live off of base and the Navy will give each of us $1,200 a month for housing. At the same time that we are being moved off of base we will be getting a $20,000 bonus (BEFORE TAXES). Myself and a friend of mine have been wanting to start investing and we think that this is the perfect time to do so. The way that it normally works is that 3 or 4 guys will rent a place together and split the rent so they can all keep some of the $1,200. I was thinking that I could use the bonus as a down payment on property and live in one room while renting the others to some of the other guys. I was wondering if it would be smart to group up with another Sailor here on base and pool our bonuses and get something larger with more rooms, because I do not know if there are any major problems with working with an investing partner like this. We are both new to investing in property and want to actively learn and get better at it. However because we are in the Navy, we will be moved away from this command and will have to spend months at sea where we will only have limited communication such as Email. This makes me think that there will be added levels of difficulty in finding the support team that will be able to manage the property while we are away. Our long term goals are very similar in that we each want to purchase a property at each command that we go to and that we want to widen our portfolio.