Demand for housing has been higher than has been seen since post-WWII America due the housing shortage caused by the crash: some 80% of builders and developers went under while housing demand rolled merrily on.Now, interest rates are rising.

There is a shortage of housing due to the influx of Cal Poly's student population over the past several years (currently over 20K).It is a great place to live though.

It's still a passion, but I have a deep yearning to apply my business skills.  

It's a skill set that I have a feeling will come in handy early on the RE investing journey as I have to think through supplier relationships (i.e. property managers, contractors) and how to get certain goods for re-models, capital improvements, and annual maintenance.I'm still formulating my RE goals, and I'm still very much enjoying my professional career... so I'd say that my goal is to generate enough cash flow that I don't need my W2 career to survive and I'm free to focus much more on what I'd like to do professionally rather than what I think I have to do to survive.

(great point) - I worked my *** off for so long that it's a skill I'm learning to slow down and smell the roses. haha.100% enjoying life includes learning, and to look behind the curtain a little bit and understand how some of these exotic real estate transactions are conducted  (exchanging property, accelerated depreciation on commercial buildings, 1031/financing until you die, subdividing, bank financing on the business cash flow, etc.. etc.. etc..) 

Great experience all around, your 4 and 7 year olds will benefit from this adventure and having to adapt to a new crowd which will teach them new skills.  

I can attest to the benefit of a marketable skill as I went back to work willingly after 5 yrs of self employment bliss doing REI, mortgage brokering and RE pimp(aka real estate agent).

so i started posting on this website about a month ago and i was posting alot for about a month. but i decided to step back to give me some time to asess my goals and figure out a game plan for how i wanted to get into investing. im going intio my sophmore year in college and have about 5000$ to my name right now. my plan is to save up money while in college and invest in re once im out. ( ill be 21) my goal is to have about 20-30 k in liquid money at the end of this period. my goal is to make this money through jobs that are going to give me some type of experience that will help me out as an investor/ landlord. any jobs i can get working with other investors or jobs that where i can learn handyman type skills is what im going for. im also thinking about trying to do some day trading but i havent settled on that yet.i know this forum is big on acting quickly and not procratinating but the way i see it i am very young and i see this as all part of the big picture of my investment plan. also im pretty much 100% sure i want to make a career out of rei for a variety of reasons and im not worried about losing interest or anything like that.that being said i have 2 questions 1) any commentarym, criticism, ideas for my plan2) i have been thinking about getting my realtors license in the next two years. is there anyways that a realtors license can be a hinderance to a re investor. any legal restrictions that realtors have that make it hard for them to invest?

I am what you may call a novice investor, prior to three years ago, no experience, no mentor, no set of skills, just a passion to do something.

You suddenly have a severe shortage in prospective tenants.