If that falls through I have retirement funds that I can tap but I'll get hit with the 10% penalty and I really don't want to do that unless absolutely necessary.  

My main goal is to set myself up for retirement.

I have invested in other areas to maintain diversification and now excited to explore Real estate.My goal for this year is to save enough and buy a single family home by August 2017.I will try to learn and gather as much information as i could in this time frame.2 Year goal (2019)- Own 3 Single Family Homes and automating the whole process of buying and maintaining properties.5 Year Goals() - Own 10 Rental properties, retire from Job and move to a new city replicating the same process.

I am currently in the US Navy and I have about 3 years until retirement.  

If I wanted property management it would be way down the line when I was retired and hopefully a lot of mortgages were paid off so it won't be a big issue.Just seems like I am really struggling to find good cash flow AFTER all these expenses are taken into account in my area and even a good 50 miles from my area.  

Agent provided numbers seem to work, but I know how that goes...We do have a bunch of years experience with multis but not more than 10 per entity and are scaling up for retirement!! 

well, as of 2 hours ago we just closed on our 2nd deal in 6 months, purchase price $351000,total monthly rental income $4150monthly expenses $91611% cap rate =thumbs upwe got into real estate to help others who want to be able to enjoy their freedom and set a more clear path towards retirement,our goal is to build our business and set forth towards our retirement in 5 years, and I want to hear other peoples success stories in the near future as well.i was first told that i'd never be able to own 1 million dollars in real estate.my next target is to have 10 million dollars in real estate and finally $100 million dollars in real estate,   get started today if you are scared, you'll never know except for hearing form others success.

This could be attributed to the baby boomers turning to snowbirds, and retiring in the warmer areas.

Currently all of my retirement funds are vested either in mutual funds or in stocks.

They aren't as easy to use and it sounds at first.A solo 401K is another retirement tool that seems to have fewer restrictions.