If you truly want to "retire" young, keep investing and living your life you'll need a ton more.

That was short lived!

I tried to work with the tenant but they have stopped responding and refuse to pay rent anymore, I don't even know who lives in the unit anymore.

There are people that do flipping in other states while they live in another state from the projects and they are successful, but they have built a team while doing it. 

Can you lease an apt under USDA low income and have someone else live there???

A little about me: My husband and I live in the SF Bay Area, we have a 3 year old and a newborn and we both work W2 jobs in the biotech industry.

Purchase price: $365,000 Cash invested: $550,000 Bought to live in, forced some equity and was able to get out almost all of my cash. 2.3% interest rate!

Your best route might be to buy a 2 to 4 unit property that you can live in and rent out the additional apartments.

And the tenants still lived there, they had just been putting old mattresses, broken furniture, and crud there for years.

After 45 + years as a real estate investor, broker, lender, fund manager and syndicator, I’ve become aware that the “dream” of many investors and investor “hopefuls” is to be able to generate enough cash flow to live off their real estate holdings and accumulate enough wealth to make “work” optional.