Starting out real estate journey

[Benjamin Cuevas]

Hi everyone! Brand new member here really wanting to get going on a successful investing journey. I just graduated dental school 6 months ago in Arizona and made a move to Oklahoma. While in dental school in dental school my wife and I bought a house in the Phoenix area. After graduation we rented it out to some students that were just starting their medical program and they have shown a desire to rent it for the remainder of their time there. We bought the house in 2016 for $167K and (don't make fun of me I'm new) according to Zillow's estimate it's worth around $271K now. We're currently way below the rental market price. Our contract says rent is $1400/month but we give them a $100 credit to maintain trees, grass and all the yard work so we're only bringing in a little over $300/month after mortgage, insurance, etc is paid. I'm also wanting to sell the house after these students are done with their program in about 2.5 years and I want to have a solid plan to use the money for more real estate investing projects. Here's a couple of questions I have about our situation:

1. What's a reasonable amount to raise rent each year seeing that we're also below the rental market price? 

2. What are some must reads to get educated in real estate investing? I'm currently listening to Brandon Turner's Book on Rental Property Investing but I think I'm going to buy a hard copy of it because I feel like I'm missing a lot of valuable diagrams just listening to it. 

3. What podcasts do you recommend? 

4. I'm still deciding on what approach to take to real estate investing. I make a comfortable living doing dentistry and I love being able to help my family and friends with their dental needs but I don't see myself doing it past 50 and I'm 31 right now. I would definitely like to do part time dentistry and part time real estate investing. I am saving each month to throw money at investments but I don't think I'm quite there yet. What's the best type of real estate investing strategy based on my situation? 

5. How has COVID affected real estate investing? Is it still a good investing strategy during these times? 

Sorry for the long post but I look forward to hearing your responses and learning lots from y'all! Thanks again