I live in the Bay Area of California, where I work in tech, particularly in hardware design and manufacturing - and have a huge passion for Virtual and Augmented Reality - it is the next wave of computing - and yes - I'm a bit of a recovering tech geek.

The reality is a loan right now probably isn't an option for you.

I just like this stuff.I remember pondering on investing in real estate around 1999, and again in 2008 but (LOL) it seemed like the stuff out of sitcoms and not reality.

Reality is every group of humans has some bad actors.   

I understand why they think that given the pod casts  late night TV etc etc. but reality check is this is a capital intensive business.. and undercapitalized business fail most times.Americans specifically have a very tough time managing personal debt.. and some of it is certainly regional..

However, the reality is actually not that simple.

OP came here for advice might as well learn harsh realities early and save both time and money.

At least I do.The problem with that in reality is two fold: first we are in the information age, so everyone knows about the project long before it's even approved.

I would put it up for rentIf you rent it in a week or two do itIf you don’t see if they still want it for 6 months and they pass the background check etc charge them 20% more for less than a year In reality their house could take much longer than 6 months but I would find a new tenant after they have been there for 4 months 

On paper, it can look great, but in reality, you may end up finding out that turn-over/vacancy happens even more often than you accounted for.