If the local market is healthy and rental income will be adequately managed by a property manager, then a long term residence could be used to build equity.

The key is building systems and finding solid property management to handle things while you move around.

Right now there're some agents trying to sell me the new build homes, but I've run the number, with the current interest rate it's really hard to get a breakeven cashflow in 5 years. 

Obviously the end goal is to build my own real estate portfolio, but gotta learn to walk before running and crawling before walking.

Go to BUILD YOUR TEAM at the top of the screen and look for local investors or meetups in your area.

One particular point can not be over emphasized; even if someone has and is willing to invest the capital in attempting to build or scale their business or investments, they still May fail if they do not possess or can not evaluate those who CLAIM to possess the necessary expertise required for scaling. 

Building this company with my family has taught me the power of collaboration and the importance of playing to each other’s strengths.

I spent a decade in advertising, before founding and running a custom wood shop for another decade, so 'm pretty good at the self-promotion.I agree with you that the more gorilla approach would be most effective and that's actually what i've been doing – calling RE agents in my service area with active listings, introducing myself to property managers and leasing agents...To answer your question, I will have to handle the work myself for 6-12 months to build out the SOPs and field service management systems, but I have a lot of relationships for those looking to "do the work".I'll check out the meet up and would love to grab a cup of coffee, I'll shoot you an email.

It never occurred to me that I’d have to make the drive to this building for 2 months.

I thought I could solve the vagrant problem by buying and repairing the buildings.