@Eduard Tanasov Start saving every penny now that you can, cut out costs that are unnecessary, think of every purchase as and investment and ask yourself what return you are really going to get on it. Do you need that morning coffee, or do you just need to sleep earlier. Do you have time for netflix, is it worth the price every month? How important is this REI dream to you and how quickly do you want it to happen is the real question.
Don't get too caught up in the complicated aspects of REI right now, your buy and hold plan is a good idea. Read books on it (there are a lot of free ebooks and others on Amazon - search buy and hold, being a landlord, real estate) highlight the things you don't understand and look up previous threads on BP or Google them. If there are still things you don't understand after that, then ask someone here on Bigger Pockets or someone local in Knoxville, who is willing to help. Only ask specific questions about concepts you don't understand or terms that are not clear to you. This post is a good start but there is so much information on the internet you should never have to ask questions like this again. You want people to help you out when you really need it so use their time wisely, don't ask "is this a good deal?" instead say "I have a deal with x,y,z which I am happy with, but I'm concerned about q, what do you think?"
If there are events or places with other REI go and observe. Go view student rentals and start asking the questions you have practiced and learned from your reading and research see how the landlords or managers respond, if there are other people around talk to them ask them what they think, see how that correlates to your knowledge. Go to real open houses (not even for houses you want) and repeat the process, learn the lingo, understand the process, at such a young age you will have to be twice as knowledgeable to be taken seriously. Thinking of Airbnb, inquire about a local one, maybe even stay there to get a taste and see what you would do differently or the same. Soak everything in.
Then start your process. Drive around and search for properties that might work, online research is very effective too. Find a place you think will work with your plan that needs minimal rehab at best, and try to get financing. To secure financing you will need to get creative, maybe talking to owners like others have suggested. You will also need a good plan, know it front to back, maybe even have an electronic presentation with the data laid out. Once that's in place and you have your loan, get to work.
Take the worst room and rent every other bit of available space. To students, on Airbnb, rent a couch, a closet, the backyard for camping, whatever. Keep saving up every dollar! I like the book by Alan Corey - Million Bucks by 30, I don't remember any particular real estate advice or how he actually made and deals or money. But what I took from it was the dedication he had to saving money and changing his life. I think he literally partitioned off a living room as his bedroom and slept on a couch for a year.
This will be your new life for a while, saving, working, and using every extra hour for research. If you're hungry and driven there is no reason you can't succeed.
