There is an amount that you can distribute from an IRA account to purchase a personal residence.You then might be able to turn the personal residence into an investment property.Best of luck.

Conducted personal research.

If you do decide to do mailer(s), then I would advise you to personalize the card and do a handwritten note. 

I heard that if you move the personal mortgages to an LLC they could get called and we would want to avoid that3.

While this job could be performed remotely, working with my peers in person for at least a year is important to me.

I will make that proposal to the person I am talking and see where it goes.

My recommendation would be to engage an investment property focused realtor (not a general residential realtor) and let that person guide you through the process from pre-qualification to market/property valuation and selection. 

Awesome to see a new investor-minded person here.. do you have a favorite real estate success story already?

Personally, I think I would stack some cash for a year or so while I did this. 

@Reeti PeshawariaIf it's a desirable place to be you can STR within structure of the current rules.