And how much money should I put aside to give me the best odds of pursuing my goal?

You will quickly learn the ropes, earn a good paycheck, and determine whether this is a career path you want to pursue.

I genuinely asked why you think not being born in the market you invest in would have any impact on success.THIRD: I didn’t realize your advice not to pursue it was because of his age.

Should we pursue the STR strategy and aim to be one of the top-performing properties in the market to increase cash flow, potentially  up to $1,000 a month?

When you first start out you will likely be less sophisticated regarding deals that you will actually pursue so my best advice is to not become a tire kicker who looks at everything and then never closes deals.

As stated above please contact a real estate attorney before pursuing this strategy.

Most come here hoping to find an avenue via real estate investing to quit their day job, but that should NOT be their goal.They should be pursuing RE investing to diversify & improve their financial future. 

If the statements made in the post that seeded this are true, and what you said in this OP are true, this is one of the most disgusting things I’ve seen in my multiple decades in this industry, and gives the entire industry a black eye.If this company pursues litigation, I would love to be on that jury.  

Recognizing the opportunity to combine steady income from existing tenants with the ability to develop the lower level for Arbol Eatery and other amenities, I pursued direct negotiations with the seller.

If the inexperienced investor knew how much work, effort, time, analysis, negotiation, organization, capital, and knowledge it takes to successfully find, identify, evaluate, and close on a property that fits the criteria that gurus falsely claim they see 100’s of every day, 99% of them would abandon their real estate dreams” and pursue ostrich farms, mink breeding, or setting up a “down line” to sell condensed cleaning products that their “upline” has an exclusive distributorship on for the southwestern quadrant of Bisbee, Arizona.