It's more than enough just to be close.BTW, for the last 2 months almost all of my spare time has been spent volunteering in my local campaign headquarters.Back to work now.Frank

I get all my furniture from tag sales, craigs list, left-over from purchases and spare furniture from family.

Focus on school and your relationship while you learn about real estate in your spare time.  

Lots of room to spare on cash flow, even if rent dropped a little you're still going to be ok.

A little bit about me:I am an engineer (mechanical by education, industrial by trade), hoping to get started as a real estate investor in my spare time.

The deal sounds ok on paper, but if anything goes wrong (with the property or life in general) you would be in a tough position, unless you make a solid income with money to spare every month.

I'm looking to purchase a ticket or two if anyone has a spare! 

But at a high level, I would say your best bet to minimize your monthly cash burn would be to rent each room that you can spare.

Home inspectors: I know some with a solid understanding of construction having owned properties en masse and then I’ve met the ones who show up with peach fuzz for facial hair barely having left their moms spare bedroom writing reports with 300 things they flag, killing a deal due to their incompetent opinion. 

I have made a lot of great connection this way, so I think it's good to be honest and talk about REI, but it does not hurt to be a bit modest and spare some details.