Don't rely on just one stream to get your tenants (like only post of Craigslist or only AirB for example).

I gave my $300,000 move-in ready beautiful vacant home to this large well known local co in Oct 2016.( Ive owned and self-managed another very similar rental in the same subdivision-- since 1998--and it has never had one day of vacancy in 16 years-- rented at $1860.)This professional pm co put all utilities in their name on my new property and turned the hot water heater ON and the Water ON ( even tho the main water cutoff valve is easily accessible in the coat closet beside the garage, the entire 3 months they 'managed it').They let the property sit VACANT OCT-NOVand on their "routine inspection on Dec 1, to make sure hobos had not moved in" they SAW the water heater in the garage was spewing (at full blast) A 20' stream/ fountain of HOT WATERand that the entire finished closed garage was covered COVERED !!

So working towards getting a dependable income stream and saving up money are probably your biggest priorities.Take time to educate yourself on BiggerPockets though and you'll be able to work out the best strategy and what niche you want to get in for yourself! 

On a small stream, a nice .18 acre parcel of land.

Obviously it will provide a good income, but it also provides a steady stream of people to share your passion for RE with and, who knows, you may find a few mentors along the way.

Ours rents movies (save on redox or Internet subscriptions).  

This is why I am looking to diversify into more stable income streams to average out the wild rides of the markets.

@David Sanford As you mentioned you will have turnover and repairs, but on the flip side you can achieve higher rents because it is possible to rent out rooms individually and you should have a steady stream of potential tenants with each new semester/year. 

I am sure that Auction.com is getting paid for their service and that is why they add them to their marketing @Wayne Brooks, it is just another stream of revenue for auction.com leveraging the existing platform that they have already built.I have also seen houses lately hit auction.com barely two months past the sheriff sale (now as REOs), but they are pre mls and auction.com does not charge a buyers fee (no co-broker involved), I have bid on a number of those (usually tracked by me from the pre foreclosure stage), but never overpay so someone always outbids me lately on these open platform auction sites.Good Luck to you!!!

I have come up with some savings and looking for a steady stream of income, perhaps from a multifamily.Would love to get educated by all those who have been there and done that.One question I do have right off the bat tho, I seem to see all these multifamily homes on loopnet with decent Cap rates and a decent NOI but when i deduct what the debt service would be for financing such a property even with 30%-35% down, I seem to arrive at a net profit figure of something like 5-6k/yr.