Based on your question, you have two core decisions to make, and they may conflict with one another - where do you want to live, and where do you want to invest? 

I live in the Champaign area.

Another student rental that has a mortage of 900k me and my wife live here on a private floor. thrid property is also another rental ( duplex w a mortage of 390k ) was fully rented but tenant upstairs has moved out a year ago so I decided to renovated to do short term rental added in 2 ensuite rooms.

I contacted him within a few hours of the listing going live and negotiated the deal by phone.

Even better if you buy 2-4 units, live in one and rent the rest - then repeat every 12 months.

Closed with no issues, inherited great tenants and have really enjoyed living in this neighborhood Lessons learned?

. $430 could be chicken feed to you.How big are your pockets lol.Obviously you want them to get bigger!

Live in 1 unit, rent the other 3.

We are working with our property manager getting everything ready to go- we are just a few weeks out from going live (fingers crossed).

Given your mobility for duty posts you can really ramp up your real estate portfolio while serving.Every time they got stationed somewhere they would purchase a property to live in using their VA and house hack.