The problem is, we’re college students who alternate between working and attending school.

You would probably be far better off buying something with a mother in law suite or buying a 5 bedroom near UCR and renting it to students by the room.

I am a BS student.

I speak with many college students about the benefits of house hacking and FHA loan questions come up all the time.

Unfortunately I have 55k in student loans with 5.7% interest at the moment.

She decided to buy a home & rent rooms to fellow students rather than waste money on dorming.

THAT IS CASH FLOW.I generally tell my students that the fundamental point of reference is your POCKETs.Any money coming into your pockets is a POSITIVE cash flow.Any money going out, is Negative.I then mention that this is EASY to remember.

If you ever have any questions on student housing, I have experience in that area and may be able to help out :) Looking forward to reading about your investing journey! 

I am a student in university, fairly new to REI and busy learning about my local market where I plan to invest.I am in the process of saving for loan down payment since I aim to first acquire a rental or more ideally do a house-hack when I am able to qualify for a loan (I have not researched private lending yet - any tips would be welcomed for financing options).I have a semester break coming up in which I hope to go out and get a feel for the Cape Town market - open to anything.

Near the schools in Tampa, they would be considered student housing, and that's a ton of wear and tear and turnover.I love, and will continue looking at small multi-families that are all 2/1.