https://www.meetup.com/the-ring/ Hitch a ride over one of these days, or better yet, offer to drive!

Especially if you plan to stay there long enough to ride out and dips and peaks.

Why do you have to ride him so hard about it?  

and proceeds to explain to me that he's looking to downsize, has 3 empty rooms in his house, has owned it for 12 years, there are 5 rental properties on his street, etc. 10 minutes into our ride, my agent-friend was looking up comps on his address, and I got his phone number to reach out to him later.

If you think staying with the hammerheads is going to provide you with the future you want that's fine, but you can't ride out making 20k a year and expect to get rolling in real estate. 

Otherwise ride the 2.24% as long as you can.

It's during this long ride that I've been devouring a multitude of REI books for the past 6 months.

If you do not keep on top of things there are plenty of tenants that will take you for a ride especially if they figure out you are out of state.

Next day took a ride to Philly to see the home, and pulled my offer out ASAP.

Talk about a wild ride.