@Brody TrottStarting a real estate career as a firefighter offers lending advantages and flexibility.

"Master Group", "Winners Circle", or whatever - where they will promise to hold your hand, find you deals, find you money, find you whatever you need - all for the low low price of (in my case) $45,000 for a 2 year membership.  

Inexperienced investors rush to buy these properties, only to find themselves with a heap of trouble.

How do you evaluate if a property is ideal for flipping or if you should keep it as a rental? I never understood why people would have a flip, boost the value by tens of thousands of dollars, then sell it as opposed t...

Build a solid foundation before taking a step up - each and every step of the way.There’s a way to scale recklessly and there is a way to scale safely.When OPM is involved safe is way better than reckless.Despite a life long career in RE, I scaled as followsBought a few duplexes for my own accountBought a fourplex for my own accountBought 12 units as a JV with some friendsSyndicated 43 unitsSyndicated 30 unitsBought another 12 units as a JVSyndicated 281 unitsThis was over a 3 or 4 year period.and so forth - now I am GP in close to 1000 units with $125M AUM.Even with all that, my sweet spot is 30 to 50 unit properties - they work best for my partners and I and more importantly our investors. 

I would focus on getting a solid job/career then going into a house hack. 

I consider market rent the price at which I can READILY find a good tenant and KEEP that tenant.

A busy marketing career.

I had waiting lists of tenants for the first and only time in my career. 

Quote from @John Mason: @Abigail Katherine Grier Welcome  to BP where you will find great investors and advice usually:)There are groups likehttps://www.meetup.com/impacttyler/Hope that helps Thanks so much!