If you are going to wait until after college, within 6 months or so you should be able to save up a small downpayment and accumulate work history to be able to buy a place.

We've tried to work with him but to this point he has accumulated 3 months of overdue rent (including late charges).

I had a rule starting out of a minimum of $1K per property but no less than $5K (so $5K starting out, then upping it as I accumulated more properties).  

There are more than a dozen full trash bags accumulated in the back yard. 

Buy and hold etc etcFor me being a foreigner (United Kingdom) my concern is my lack of accumulated credit in the United States.

The borrower still owes over $6k in interest arrears and with such a small loan amount that past due has been accumulating for a while.  

Hello,I'm planning on accumulating several dozen single family homes with cash over the next year, and then getting a non-recourse loan so I can leverage up the portfolio (without risk of personal bankruptcy).  

I was able to purchase my second property in December with none of my money down and am now in a position to accumulate properties more easily in 2016.

Atleast my tenants are happy and I accumulated frequent flyer miles (lol!).

Sure, there are the outliers that have purchased multiple properties while working a full time job but those stories are either very rare, overstated, or in many cases, will underperform because the lack of the things I just listed resulted in the accumulation of a portfolio of what will someday reveal themselves as lesser quality deals than the buyer originally thought.The most CA properties I've bought in one year was somewhere between 100 and 150 but I've been doing this for 25 years, have a staff of acquisition, project management, asset management and accounting staff...and this IS my full time job.