By getting involved in the community and building relationships with long-term residents, you’ll stay top-of-mind for distressed sellers.I hope this helps!

Keep your long-term goals in mind to steadily grow your income and savings through house hacking.Good luck!

In my experience, being around growth like minded individuals is what has allowed me to grow the most.

I have a broker so looking for unsolicited mentor advice  hopefully there are other like minded folks that like to pay it forward. 

I love where you mind is at and how organized your post/plan is.

Keep in mind comps can change in the 1-2 years you plan on living there.

But that is the one thing to keep in mind. 

Hi Catherine,Welcome a board to Bigger Pockets, it's a great place to learn and Network with like minded investors. 

College used to be a lot more affordable, I studied in Europe (where college is free) and it blows my mind to see kids with 200k student loan debt trying to get ahead on a 50k job.The housing market has started to drift apart geographically.

New Jersey is a great place to invest especially if you are open minded to the idea of house hacking.