Meanwhile, the PM can concentrate on fixing the small stuff and filling the vacant units. 

Hollywood is an investment area I am concentrating on for small multifamily like duplexes and triplexes.

Unfortunately, he runs his own business but he has been effected by the oil business and has not earned any money in about a year and had to cut me off and just concentrates on his family.  

You'll likely have to make multiple trips for showings and you also want your go to contractors to be concentrated in that area.I work with first-time investors/landlords like yourself and can make a recommendation as to which neighborhoods you should be looking at that will get you the highest return on your time and investment.

As I am rather new at investing but speaking from experience I concentrated on one market.  

If you're looking in the city, I'd concentrate my search in Jefferson Park and Portage Park.  

Increased distance away from NYC had to be coupled with attractive population growth opportunities and affordable house pricesMy criteria: Too far away / close byProjected population growth in line with historical population growth AND positive4+ Fortune 500 companies AND concentration (i.e. # of companies per city)General knowledge or stereotypes of location (not the best criteria but given that I had more states to choose from than I had time to explore each individual state in depth, my goal was to find reasons not to invest in a state)My results: 12 statesTexas, New Jersey, Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Washington, Arizona, Maryland, NevadaStep 4: For each of the 12 states, I listed out all the cities that had at least 1 Fortune 500 company and cross referenced those cities with a list of colleges from http://www.collegesimply.com/colleges/.

Also, as stated by @Sid Leibowitz concentrate on getting your credit up.

@Marcus Auerbach you make a great point - I'm happy with my team in Milwaukee, so I would be better off concentrating my efforts there for a while.

I wasn't sure where to fit this post in (there are so many forum topic areas) so I decided to post it in the exclusive pro area since, hopefully, those with pro accounts are as serious as I am when it comes to real estate investing and can offer better advice to a beginning investor like myself.I just wanted to gauge your thoughts on whether or not a degree in real estate or a degree in finance with a concentration in real estate is something you think would be worth doing.