Earning interest outside a retirement plan sucks. 

My 13th hour cancellation was someone who had booked for 3 weeks and after a week announced that her plans had changed and she was leaving the following morning.

@Joshua Tucker Building real estate on tribal land offers unique tax benefits, but it requires careful planning and collaboration with tribal authorities.

Of course, the floor plan has to be conducive to this.

i think you can be successful if you are willing to do what you alluded to, which is spend time in person in your chosen market. 

Are you planning to invest there?

Speak with the director of development (they're not always titled that way, so just ask for whoever deals with area developments, new construction, rezoning, etc.) to ask if they'd be supportive of your plan.

They were thinking of planning another one that required massive loans (7 figures). 

I’m 17 and plan on getting my real estate license right after I graduate high school.

Even if a software is free or cheap, it's the time investment getting things set up and then tweaking it for the first few months that is the real "spend".