It’s great to see you diving into real estate, and it sounds like you’re on an exciting path.

I am mostly looking for some advice and lessons learned from others on how leaving their residence and becoming a landlord from across the country went. 

I also have separate banks so that's confirmation that I'm on the right path. 5.

I'm not sure if this plan sounds crazy but my wife is on board and I think it's probably a good path to getting us where we want to be.

For instance in the Northwest.. picking anything with  Pacific  Northwest  or local cities etc are already taken .. but when i have someone pick one from where thay are at in the country its never taken.. 

I've developed a strong interest in real estate and am eager to learn more about how I can leverage this field to potentially shorten my path to retirement.

Section 8 rents for the entire country by locality are on the HUD website, HUDuser.org look for Fair Market Rent (FMR) there. 

But, also due to the aging population you have people like my landlord; whose children don't want to inherit the property because they live in a different area of the country.  

Focus on understanding the path of progress, identifying rental properties with the most potential, learning the seasonality trends, and figuring out which upgrades will really move the needle in that area.

@Landon Lehmann many investors borrow against their primary residence equity to invest.Getting a HELOC can also be the path of least resistance and cheapest.There is risk though, that if you investment results in a loss or lawsuit that you could lose some or all of that money and more (lawsuit).Getting more insurance is typically easier than setting up an LLC and meeting all the requirements to separate your business from your personal assets.What are you doing to source potential flip properties?