I'm more interested in purchasing 10 homes to have fully paid off by the time I retire, as I'm not living on the cash flow w/ current job. 

All good, he got the job and started on May, 10, 2018.To make a long story short. 

New builds, new developments, plenty of rentals within driving distance of the city center, and there are still plenty of areas where a good eye for a rehab job will get you a good ROI.

Also, how much time do you want to spend doing real estate vs. your main job or extra work in order to fund it.

Conventional financing is a great option to get started if you have a W2 job or easily verifiable income and you're financing a 1-4 unit property.

The market is soft now, but with the new administration, we are going to see a lot more jobs coming in.

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

You must work at least 750 hours per year in a qualified RE business.So most people who have high-earning W-2 jobs outside of real estate won't qualify.But the unique thing about RE pro status is that even if you don’t qualify but your spouse does, you can both file jointly and claim the losses from your RE investments to offset your other active income together.It's an incredibly powerful benefit if you do meet the criteria.

Throughout the year I come across situations where people need to sell there home due to a variety or reasons, job loss, income loss, health, divorce, etc.

My ultimate goal is to become successful with my real estate investments so I don’t have to rely so much on my job and be able to spend more time at home with my soon to be wife and future children.