Personally, I would not keep a rental that is not expected to cash flow. 

Real estate investment is my future.This amazing voyage begins with setting personal goals and vision.

With enough knowledge you can make a educated decision on which approach you take.My experience:I personally don't sign up for any program who take you aside during events and try to sell packages that is just blatant sales strategy.Once you sign up there is every attempt to make you sign for their programs for bookkeeping, registered agent, LLC or corp setup fee which have ridiculous even with platinum membership.Basic standard structure they suggest to take advantage of multiple deductions can be easily achieved by proper education or work with a good firm like https://wcginc.com  who is local to you.A umbrella C-crop to manage all other LLC properties and take advantage of many tax deductions that are not available with a llc, its also used to take losses up to 100K as startup expenses and dissolve the entity after few years.Few LLC entities for investing in Real Estate, etc preferably in Wyoming or Nevada ( you can find many companies online who can do this for $150 compared to anderson $1500-$3000) , they will claim they have a secret Operating agreement which is bogus.They certainly try to take advantage of tax loopholes and claim to be smart people, my view they are just taking advantage of numbers as per their own statements.

Cosmo - I personally don't know Phoenix well, but if I had to do this in another city I would look at income levels, crime levels, and population growth (if you can) by zip code and/or area within a DMA as a starting point.

I personally leverage, but have a large rainy day fund. 

To clarify, in MN a person must be a licensed to perform at-charge Property Management services, for others, on a standard commerce basis. 

Are their listings detailed with good-quality photos?

Cost per lead (CPL) is crucial—it shows how much you're paying to get a potential seller or buyer’s info, and you want this as low as possible without sacrificing quality.

You’ll put 5% down but get 2% back on sale (which might pay for your closing costs) and then do a rent by the room to cover your expenses and downpayment for next year) Not sure which university you are at but both Henrietta and South Wedge are solid places to start (serving RIT and UR respectively) Good luck, I personally think Rochester is a great area to start due to constrained supply with a growing population

You might get transferred a couple times until you reach the right person.