I have been avoiding this forum for so long because well, I am ashamed of myself a little lol.

Thank you Hey @Paul Whitehurst, welcome to the BP Forum!

If you can get a single family home and have roommates, that's the most approachable strategy and will really allow you to know rather quickly if you hate managing rentals or not.Here's my experience starting at 22, and what I regretted from house hacking: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/922/topics/1133476-hous... 

A good place to start figuring out profit/cash flow is to search the forums for the 4 Square Analysis. 

Most likely your conclusion is correct, but the only way to confirm it is by having a real estate accountant review your tax situation.Also, please read this introduction if you want to better understand the concept:https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/51/topics/1075919-five-...

@Jemini LeckieIf investing locally is not in the cards I would do some research and pin point a market that fits what you are looking for and then reach out in the forums for that specific market and ask more detailed questions.

Again, the BiggerPockets store has some books on this topic, or you can learn about it by watching podcasts, reading blogs, and interacting on the forum.

Hey , i am new to the bigger pocket forums , we are thinking of trying to get away from Canada and i was wondering about getting work with a builder /contractor under an E-2 or similar visa .

The programs that claim high success, over and over again, are the ones that appear on these forums a few years later with students making claims about misrepresentation by the programs. 

@Brad Kanouse,I believe this is a duplicate of this post:https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/311/topics/1210256-usin...But regardless, here is my answer:If you take a distribution from an IRA - it will be subject to taxes and penalties.You can convert your IRA into a "Self-directed IRA" and have the IRA buy the property, in this case you are not the owner, the IRA is.