I know too that with all these professions (realtors, LOs, insurance agents) that considerable time is also spent with prospects or clients where they do not get paid at all.  

Is the appeal to having it in/near Tempe renting it out to college students? 

If anyone who professes to teach you something about real estate cannot or will not identify 10-20 specific, verifiable addresses they currently own and rent out, or have flipped, or optioned away or syndicated or whatever, they do not deserve any of your money. 

However, they eventually became blinded by profits and began heavily marketing to high schools students.

Second largest metro area in Alabama with a population of over 500,000 when including Baldwin County, of which over 40,000 individuals commute from for work.3. 7.5 miles from downtown is The University of South Alabama which employs more than five thousand people, and has over 15,000 students.

Greetings from Las Vegas! I am brand new to real estate investing.  Right now I am flooding my mind with books, blogs, videos and conferences, trying to learn as much as I can.  I feel at this point trapped by the Ana...

The Dallas one was 13 miles away from SMU in a submarket that will likely not draw one student, one faculty member, or even one employee from SMU. 

I've always compared rent-by-room to student housing.

I have $30 k in savings, no auto or student loans and excellent credit.

I have over $2M in personal debt but nothing in student debt.