@Justin Whitfield I’d first forget about FiRE status - it doesn’t really exist without large trade offs that you’re likely not willing to make.

Choose Your Real Estate StrategyRental Properties: Purchase properties to rent out for consistent monthly income.Fix and Flip: Buy distressed properties, renovate them, and sell at a profit.Wholesale: Contract properties and sell the rights to buy them to other investors.Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs): Invest in publicly traded REITs for passive income without direct property ownership.5.

I don't think you can get a true sense of what you are buying from behind a computer.

You could use Redfin.com and Zillow.com and create a simple spreadsheet computing sold in last 90 days vs listed to see where properties are moving and what types of properties are selling the fastest. 

Where I am going with this is someone may trade a W2 wage slave job for a job of owning rental units to house people and their pets.

Start at home, do the maintenance work in your home, if something is broken and needs to be fix try to do it yourself before your parents call for a trade to have it fix .

The result is that Sbux is paying $60 - $70 dollars in rent, but the market rent in the area is only $30 to $40 so an investor who, say, trades out of a small MF property into a Starbucks thinking they're getting a great "hands off" investment could find themselves owning a building that's worth half what it was when they bought it (or less, depending on what the tenant pool is to back fill it).

I know this could mean switch to another job to keep learning my trade or taking courses on project management.

In the land business out west especially low value desert land pretty much all of those deals are traded with QC ( Quit Claim) Deeds prepped by the seller and mailed in to record.

it seems like a confluence of factors have made it difficult to get started - there is lots of competition for deals, both on and off market; money is expensive; the trades are booked up forever; etc.