I'm converting one of my apartments to an STR and wanted to know if anyone can point me to an appropriate rental agreement/contract I can use.

One investor I know had a Section 8 tenant initially but chose not to renew the lease in order to bring in a more qualified tenant and increase the rent.You’re in the right place to connect with like-minded investors who have walked a similar path.

Renting out one side can help offset your mortgage, which is a huge advantage while you're building financial stability.

Dang, this is a good one and I don't have a great answer but I would look at lenders who specialize in commercial or portfolio loans.

I am planning on doing a flip or a build in Phoenix in the next one to two years.

Quote from @Jordan Ray: Quote from @Chris Seveney: We have some leads on assets in the humboldt / jackson area in tennessee and looking to connect with investors in the area.I know one of the biggest investors in the area, his name is Dustin Ring.

I have one and am busy developing two more. 

When my youngest went to school, I changed my license status to Active, and have learned and enjoyed helping people buy/sell/invest for around 7 years now.Everyone's journey is different....you might one day no longer be a firefighter...you might move to another state....you might want to buy a house one day and having a real estate license could save you some money. 

However, there's an obvious loophole to the claim because if you buy a house for 999K and then the value goes over 1 million then technically you're one of the 90% that just became a millionaire through real estate :) REIT investing is a much less active way of investing into the 11 major real estate sub-sectors, in the US we have 274 listed REITs on the major exchanges of NYSE and NASDAQ, and about 75-80 of them are not equity REITs but rather mortgage REITs, which I like to park cash in when 10yr yields are trending down to give me capital appreciation plus 14-15% dividend yields. check out alreits | Global REIT Researchto do more thorough individual research.

One I am still learning, and would love to incorporate into my business.