The higher rates have somewhat slowed down the "get rich quick with no money down" crowd as financing is more difficult, but I still see a lot of new investors with serious cash or purchasing power.

We have a great relationship and great line of communication. 

Haven't communicated directly with tenants myself.

She connected me with so many people (home inspector, insurance agent, lender etc), but allowed me to handle communication with them directly so that I was aways in the loop with what was going on.

They were great at first with onboarding, communication, payments.

Like Living in South Africa but earning in dollars, currency conversion rich. 

I'm not looking to get rich quick but I would like to start building a portfolio to eventually get out of the "9-5 rat race".If anyone is in the Birmingham area, I would love to meet up and let me pick your brain on things. 

Particularly interested in investing in Columbus, Ohio and Tokyo or Fukuoka, Japan.Recently read a few books including Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Bigger Pocket's The Book on Rental Property Investing. and as a result have been looking more seriously into it.Although investing in the US seems pretty straight forward (especially as an American and with all the resources available), investing in Japan as a foreigner seems to be a bit tricky and not so black and white. 

I am considering purchasing the software and normally wouldn’t bother with these sites because the responders are by and large get rich quick mentality.

This is why rich people, despite cries about not paying fair shares, in reality pay disproportionately more per dollar than others, that is, more than their fair share relative to others.