I'm not trying to say that this is the best way to do anything, just that this is a way that strikes me as something I'd be tempted to consider as an effective, yet reasonably conservative way to invest in the asset class that I believe will help me build the most wealth over time, without putting myself all at once in a position that I might be unable to sustain. 

Call up those numbers and see if you have any tired landlords who are tired of dealing with tenants and are interested in striking up a deal.

So, I'm basically asking how to strike a deal via leveraging of my high income, good credit score, high effective tax rate, but current low access to capital (I put most of my liquidity into my fund, which on a risk adjusted basis has higher returns than real estate, but is tied up for 5-7 years)I've run numbers such as financing the down payment via credit card offers I get - downside here is that the cost of capital isn't deductible and ups the monthly rental; it's also limited to ~30k.

If so, buy them all, wait till the area fully populates, and strike down the HOA. 

Rick Harmon cash maybe boring, but is most powerful 🤑Matt Roberts once you get the details, PM me and let's see if we can strike a deal.

I don't have any experience with wedding planning, so take my opinion for what it's worth, but it strikes me as the sort of thing where you could scale it to the level of work you're interested in putting in.  

  $450k could be a tear down in certain areas...You have one strike against you in being a distant investor, it has been hard to fine flip properties in any market on the MLS so you may want to fine tune the areas you are interested and try off market methods of finding property.  

You may want to strike that one off your list. 

I am looking for more of a retirement portfolio but also having money coming in each month will help if I happen to go on strike again during our contract negotiations.

Don't get discouraged.Another way is to work for them (for free or not depends on the deal you can strike with them), that also comes after they know you for a while and are positive you are an asset to them.