I am not trying to build a 100 million dollar empire so. there it is. 

RENT - Self-manage your empire, pick the best tenants you can find, treat them fair and honestly, outsource all the sucky work like clearing toilets or painting at turnover. 

. $400k does not buy you much of a home in SoCal or even in the inland empire.  

I bought my house for less than it appraised for, about 30k under what it would sell for in this market.As for my area, San Francisco and Oakland rent dropped but the more inland areas are still high and continues to grow due to the people leaving the heart of the bay area.

Although now I am trying to find the right way to study more, there must be statistic or so to study to have numbers make sense .For now focusing on BC or maybe NB , but I do not discard AB for sure, like many I looked into Calgary last year :) .I should reach out to know more about the inland market though , thank you Edit: sorry at mention do not seem to workHi Nicolas,As others said the first thing is to talk to a bank or mortgage broker (I recommend an investor focused mortgage broker) and find out how much you can borrow.

Another idea would be to start in land. 

I found a good property with a very low sale price in Inland Empire.

@Cody L.  100 years plus for most of the upper inland empire land plays.. and yes most likely someone bought it at tax sale. there are companies that churn this stuff for a living most based in LA.

I almost forgot to mention that I'm currently 18 years old in my freshman year of college, but that isn't going to stop me, just give me more time to build an empire!

@Megan BroomHouse hacking is the smartest way to get started building your empire, and your questions about financing are smart ones.