@Ryan Cummings Do you have any construction skills yourself?

I definitely do not condone doing work illegally, however as a country we also have a huge housing issue (and skilled labor issue as I am sure you know first hand).

Maybe it’s because he gets to use his drafting skills 💁‍♀️.

So I trade risk related to out-of-state investment, with risk to hold huge leverage in over-bloated market in tenet friendly state, but I am losing opportunity to build a skill-set of out-of-state investing which will help me to scale faster and be flexible in the future.If we buy cheaper house but further from the city, we will spend a lot more time in the commute(3 days in the office mandate), in this case we will trade time(commute) for money(affordability) it makes it not an investment, but another work.

Depending how much you earn you can step up those savings by getting a side-hustle in any part of real estate....working for a top Real Estate office on weeknights and weekends, working for an RE Investor, working for a General Contractor and learning a few skills, etc.

Learning to manage tenants, property managers, and projects is a whole other set of skills.

Our aim is to leverage the skills and discipline we developed through service to build a successful real estate portfolio. 

The challenge that's forcing you to look off-market will create a very valuable skill for your future investments!

You've got those skills in place. 

Investing requires a bit more skill with how the market is these days.