We invest in assets for the long term as God/Navy willing we hope to use them to fuel early retirement in 15 years.Definitly check out the blogs,podcast and forums.

If we were to do this, we'd get a PM to find tenants and do the legal/leasing for us in exchange for one month's rent, but I would take the management from there.I was introduced to BP through the podcasts, and have been reading up on real estate investing, and I'm pretty convinced that I want to get into buy & hold investing as a retirement strategy, but I need some advice as to if my current home is the right place to start. 

The two biggest factors that have lead me be able to contemplate retirement before 40 (by retirement I mean leaving the 9-5, not golfing all day in Hawaii!)

We are buy and hold investors with the goal of using the cash flow to retire in 15 years. 

My occupation as a physical therapist can be taxing and i'm already planning toward retirement plan with passive income from REI.  

Also, I assume from your photo that you are also fairly young (like myself) and therefore don't have the necessity for a 15yr loan to be fully invested by a "retirement" age.  

My goal is to be able to secure a true retirement.

We are investing for future cash flow, as we hope to use these house in 15 years to retire early.

Either way I feel both can eventually bring me closer to my goal of retiring from my full-time job by 40 (26 now).

The great thing about using a retirement plan is that cost basis generally doesn't matter.