Appreciation will just be the icing on the cake!

Taking bookings is cake really and I vet each and every guest.

If possible, I suggest house hacking to get started...buy a 2-4 unit with the new 5% down program plus add on a renovation to put icing on the cake!

Anything beyond this is icing on the cake).Given this prioritization, I agree this wouldn't be the best financial investment to maximize returns.

I didn't consider being a landlord the piece of cake he was making it out to be.  

I feel like you wouldn't want to be in a position of buying your first rental property to find out a few weeks/months in that you do not enjoy it and then have to figure out what you're going to do with the property to rectify your personal situation.If you are able to find a multifamily that needs work I think that would be icing on the cake.  

Land in Apex north and west is selling like hot cakes to International investors and national builders.

That is speculating and not investing.Numbers work going in and the rest is icing on the cake if it happens and if not you hit your goals anyway.It seems the primary reason you are buying is for a home for the family to live in so the investment portion seems like a much less important detail than the emotional component from what you have said so far.Maybe just view this property as a happy family home purchase and then if you like the area once you live there look around for properties where you buy just off of investment from the additional cash flow with the low mortgage payment.

Once you can do that, the rest is cake.

As for exam studying, RE trainers out of Anaheim has a 2-day exam crash course scheduled for the weekend of Oct 8-9 in Santa Clara.