I definitely think a lot more people invest in the bigger cities.

That being said if you are going and buying a 10 unit apartment building, then yes the liability is definitely worth itGenerally your liability is not that high with just one property and if you're just getting started, then you should take advantage of a house hacking strategy and use the lower interest rate and down payment to get into your first deal. 

I will definitely not renew the lease, the lease renewal is in March.

If you are getting paid based as a percentage of the sale / purchase price, that sounds an awful lot like a commission to me.However, I am not your attorney, so if you want a definitive answer to your question, I would recommend you hire an experience Texas real estate attorney OR get a real estate license (and then you don't have to worry about the issue).

Sounds like you definitely need to work with an attorney."

If you have a lender that offers a hybrid style program, please do share as it will definitely help us all out.

@Imani Naomi what is your definition of private money?

Hey Corey -Three things I’d like to highlight are:1) Most lenders will have a leverage cap on doing a portfolio loan versus doing a single asset, so definitely ask the lender(s) that you’re speaking to about this. 2) Be mindful that a portfolio loan will save a decent chunk of change (thousands of dollars) on closing costs, so that can make it worth it. 3) Lenders will also have partial release clauses for paying off individual properties in the portfolio.

@Kristjan Meitz would definitely target a 2-4 unit if possible.Challenge will be finding one at a price you can afford and that's in a decent area.Once she's accepted somewhere, check to see if the school has a placement assistance office.

AND with STRs you have no risk of evictions (which can get to be real expensive depending on the area)  and most damages that guests do are covered by insurance (either through the rental platform it was booked through or sometimes the property management firm has added insurance too).As someone that build a large long term rental portfolio here in Illinois (I still have 40+ houses here) and somebody now building a portfolio in tennessee, I would definitely recommend looking at new construction in some of these str areas.