😂Plenty of lovely folks there, plus it's where Cannon Air Force Base is located, but we soon discovered that just having a base nearby didn't necessarily make for a lively real estate market.Shortly after that, we adopted our MUCHAS criteria:M - Near a military baseU - Has at least one college or universityC - Has a Costco or equivalentH - Has a hospital ranked at least as a Level II Trauma CenterA - Has a commercial airportS - Has a Sprouts (organic grocery) or equivalentThis has led us to look at often-overlooked markets like Lubbock, Texas and Augusta, Georgia.May be worth a look for you as well!

It sounds like a couple of folks have answered most of your questions. 

Once you find that group find some folks you resonate with that are 2-3 steps ahead of you and figure out how to get there!

Looking to connect with the seasoned folks, mentors, and other like minded folks.  

Happy to get you connected to folks. 

Heard of a few folks that "make their mortgage for the year" by renting out their downtown condos on Air bnb.

Check this out for reference: https://tranio.com/articles/real_estate_agents_commissions_i... also in a lot of these countries agents are not full service and attorneys (or "solicitors", "barristers" etc. varying names in different places) handle the contracting/paperwork which agents handle here, so those folks also need to be paid.

Your realtor will do a lot of the acquisition hand holding you're looking for and BP and your local network can help with any concerns you have getting folks into the property and managing it, or you can hire a property manager to do it, albeit at 10-15% of gross and they won't do as good a job as you will.

When your self employed like we are I dont think a lot of folks realize how vulnerable our lives can be in a financial melt down like the GFC.

I like that "what is easier to put a value on" I didn't think about it that way and given the amount of properties these folks probably do they'd probably take the most convenient route.