Closing costs, expenses to make the property rent ready, and cash reserves add up to a lot more than you think.10-15 years for a FI goal is reasonable, but understand the snowball rolling downhill path of progress that it will take to get there.

Meanwhile, I am educating myself on REI and analyzing deals for the next year.I am looking to find a mentor who has carved a path in multi-family & commercial real estate to help build my confidence and investing skills.I am also open to finding partners in the area to go in on deals with.

If your wife is inheriting multi family properties in multiple countries my advice would be to study up the best you can on property management so that when the time comes you have the knowledge and tools to hire a quality property manager for those properties.

As soon as you buy a property it will begin to drop due to credit usage, but that's ok... that's what it supposed to do.Unfortunately in today's rate environment it is difficult at best to find good deals in about 95% of the country.  

@Kevin LeeMetro Detroit has arguably one of the best price/roi/location balances in the country.

He is from out of country and not just out of state.

There are a few paths we teach, one is like William said which is sending out mail to get deals.

You are definitely on a good path right now by looking into the Ohio cities.

Does anyone have experience with out of country cosigner?

As noted, is this next to major hospital or off the beaten path?