Are you broke looking for something to pursue as a career or do you have a profession and are looking to supplement your income and/or save for retirement?

Just trying to figure out how to get something for myself with a little extra space to rent out as well to supplement the mortgage payment. 

With that going, I was ready to invest more, but he was not, so I am working on finding actual income for my family now, instead of supplementing our college fund.

I'm totally 100% interested in cash flow.Goals are to supplement my income at the moment and eventually I'd like to get into working my properties and growing the rental empire full time while making gobs of cashflow (just being honest right?

One is my main job(yardman at a concrete plant)and the other is to supplement income(valet trash).

Hey Mike quick question...do you find that your rents or turnover are affected by having all electric (up here in NE) heat or do you supplement with a self ventilated space heater or some such?

So, they aren't supplementing the market as buyers.So, when the boom ends but you still need to plan for retirement I would buy cash flowing or long term appreciating assets any day!

If you're serious about going this route to actually sell residential real estate and not just for supplementing your pursuit of being an investor, I would strongly recommend David's new book "Sold" (in the BP library). 

And with interest rates climbing, there may be a bit more leverage for buyers.How does one transition from a buyer-rookie (like me) to an investor who can supplement their income?

Something to keep in mind when screening is that your prospective tenant might have a criminal record anywhere in the US, so be sure to do nationwide credit, criminal, and eviction and supplement those with local searches where you feel you need a more granular look.