I'm just about to graduate college and there is a lot of activities and community around people my age in the city as well.Houston didn't impress me too much. 

Not hustle as he sounds like a passive investor as his age would suggest that he doesn't want to be in debt for the next 15-30 years and risk quitting his day job that close before retirement.You can always purchase land in California and build a small cabin to rent out.

Hi Bubba, Transitioning to online-first marketing is crucial in today's digital age.

I could be somewhat flexible on age of the house, but I chose 10 years because if we are living out of state, we would need to rely on local contractors for repairs and capital items, which can be costly and eat up all your annual profit.

Hello, I know that this thread is quite aged.

Man how this aged!

At your age I would start with a primary residence and house hack a small part of it for STR.

During a social encounter, I unknowingly interacted with an individual who misrepresented their age.

If we need to hire someone to mow the rental properties lawns or maintain websites, I am not sure why it will be very hard to convince IRS that we could hire our own kids to do the job if they are capable, and their payment is reasonable for their age.  

It's human nature not to factor in their time, nor large episodic real estate expenses etc.almost forgot this table chart from Mary Callahan Erdoes , she is the head of JP morgan asset management which has hundreds of thousands of high net worth investors, They are quite stringent when comparing their own investor's returns to other Asset classes