By getting involved in the community and building relationships with long-term residents, you’ll stay top-of-mind for distressed sellers.I hope this helps!

Keep your long-term goals in mind to steadily grow your income and savings through house hacking.Good luck!

I have a broker so looking for unsolicited mentor advice  hopefully there are other like minded folks that like to pay it forward. 

Keep in mind comps can change in the 1-2 years you plan on living there.

College used to be a lot more affordable, I studied in Europe (where college is free) and it blows my mind to see kids with 200k student loan debt trying to get ahead on a 50k job.The housing market has started to drift apart geographically.

I love where you mind is at and how organized your post/plan is.

Some syndicators are mostly motivated by the acquisition fee. 

Hi Catherine,Welcome a board to Bigger Pockets, it's a great place to learn and Network with like minded investors. 

In my mind, you only have control over how you market the property and how your respond to leads and where you price it.  

New Jersey is a great place to invest especially if you are open minded to the idea of house hacking.