I worked for a mason in my teens and pointing materials are cheap.

@Geoff HusaI'm a local (Mesa/Gilbert/QueenCreek) teen that is trying to get into Real Estate.

. :-) www.biggerpockets.com/teen I wrote the book just for young people like you - young motivated hustlers who want passive income and early financial independence!

As a young beginner, your first step is to read this book from Bigger Pockets. www.biggerpockets.com/teenIt is specifically for teens who are exactly where you are right now - the beginning.

Did it with my two teens. 

I also like www.cashflowconnections.com Hunter Thompson is smart and well diversified into asset classes I like a lot for the next 10 years, Self-Storage, Mobile Home Parks and Value-add apartments on the more affordable side, NOT CLASS A.Gaw Capital is also a firm i have directed some of my private clients to review, if you want international diversity.You need some geographic and asset class diversity, and this structure is hard to beat, you could go with 1 firm, but i feel putting the hypothetical $3.5mm into 2-3 top notch, recession surviving firms is best. make sure they have been through a recession.With good operators, you should be pushing high teens IRRs fairly safely. this is VERY PASSIVE and IMHO a fairly safe way to go.I tell anyone who will listen this is where i would park my money if i wanted passive cashflow and some upside potential. 

I just saw today on line that a teenager went to the address of the wrong house to pick up his brother...A man answered the door and shot the teen in the head--then shot him again after he hit the ground.  

definitely too rough of an area.. a lot of houses are dilapidated on those streets... and the prices that they're selling for are as low as the teens..

What about post foster care when the kids get to big, or they are in there teens, half way houses, post military housing, Section 8, not to mention all the free money you can get, Grants, NO taxes, HUD homes. 

When rates return, you should be able to refinance and improve the CoC return to the high 'teens or low 20's.