The networking and local market insights are invaluable.For retirement planning, focus on building steady cash flow and consider setting aside a healthy maintenance fund (I usually recommend 6 months of expenses) to protect against any surprises.If you're looking to expand your portfolio, Columbus is a great market where we still see positive cash flowing deals with lots of appreciation potential.

The five people you spend the most time with will influence you.

While it will likely give you more confidence and answer a lot of questions, I would say that talking to a seasoned investor, or even agent that works with investors, is a way better idea than spending 8K on something that you don't know too much about, especially before your first deal is done.

Many voucher holders also work and so sometimes they will have a higher amount to spend than someone who doesn’t work because they can pay up to a % of their net income from the HA’s calculations, often 30-40%.

@Drew Sygit The verbiage in our management agreement is as follows: make, contract, and/or supervise repairs, alterations, and/or decorations to Property; to purchase supplies and pay billstherefore; Broker agrees to secure the prior approval of Owner for all expenditures estimated to be in excess of $500.00 forany one item, except monthly or recurring operating expenses and/or emergency repairs in excess of the maximum, if inthe opinion of the Broker such repairs are necessary to protect the property from damage or to maintain services to thetenants as called for in their leases; in the event that Owner is unreachable after multiple contact attempts for more thanforty-eight (48) hours to approve a repair in excess of the above amount, Broker shall be considered authorized to makesuch repair.I've been contacted about high ticket items in the past but these "make readys" are done without approval. 

@Vidit Maini Until you are an ESTABLISHED business I would recommend just keeping track of your mileage for deduction as opposed to spending the extra money to buy a “company vehicle”.

After spending all day dodging junk mail, junk e-mail, junk texts, and junk phone calls I have very little energy left for junk BP posts!

I use a channel manager (OR) and it has damage protection built in.

This means you wouldn’t need to spend time managing properties or building a team, which is perfect given your time constraints.

Then spend a LOT of time analyzing deals from the MLS in your preferred location.