We want to grow our real estate business to be able to quit our jobs.

This is not as passive as other investing but it will help launch your portfolio so that you can continue to invest without needing to work additional jobs.

They are up and running again, but this pushed jobs back. 

I also treated studying like a full-time job.

I have offered to help before, to which I got reply that best thing you can do is let us do our job.

A lot of research and studies have come out around high paying jobs make large impacts. 

Where another issue arrises is I recently quit my job after becoming pregnant as they would not cover my maternity while overseas, my husband is employed however he works for a UK company and is British so would be unlikely to help us with the situation in the US.

That said, I don't think you can ask for reimbursement unless you would have done the job yourself or they clearly overcharged for the job.Hi Locke!

I do not think anyone in Cleveland will do a good job. 

If you're willing and able, I do recommend the "house hacking" strategy which is just a fancy name for buying a rental property and living in one of the units, because you'll get very favorable financing - an owner-occupied fixed-rate 30-year mortgage.I'd also say, analyze that property as if you won't live there and it's a pure rental, and make sure the property is still cash flow positive if there's a tenant in your unit because then you'll know if it's actually a good investment.And when you analyze it, include payment of a property manager in your #s because if you don't, and doing so would make it go cash flow negative, then you've just bought yourself a job because you literally can't step away from managing it without losing money.