Getting the degree enables me job security and pay higher than minimum wage to fund my real estate dream.

What do you think the cash flow would be on the average San Francisco property purchased in 2000 if it never had value extracted? 

If rents fail to pace with the cost of living, your financial independence will be short-lived.Long lasting: Your rental income must last a long time, ensuring that you do not outlive your income.Reliable: You must be able to depend on your income every month, even during tough economic times.Now that we have defined the requirements for achieving lifelong financial freedom through passive income, we can determine the necessary criteria that a location must meet.When Rents Keep Pace With the Cost of LivingIn real estate, prices and rents are determined by the imbalance between the number of buyers and sellers.When there are more sellers than buyers, prices decline until there is a rough balance between the number of buyers and sellers.When the number of buyers roughly equals the number of sellers, prices are static or increase at a slow rate.When the number of buyers greatly exceeds the number of sellers, prices increase rapidly.Rents follow prices.Higher prices reduce the number of people who can purchase, increasing demand for rental properties and increasing rents.Lower prices enable more people to purchase, decreasing demand for rental properties and decreasing rents.There is a lag of 1 to 5 years between price changes and corresponding changes in rents.

I use lockboxes for self-showings on vacant rentals and that enables people to view rentals quickly, even during nights and weekends, which helps find renters faster.

The companies that enable these types of mass texts often champion the high conversion rate of text compared to other mediums but ultimately I believe it will backfire.

Seasoned investors will tell you to buy but also have 500 rental properties and access to a plethora of resources that enable them to purchase at steep discounts.

-Extract your equity through a cash out refinance of your existing property-Get a home equity line of credit -Sell the equity in your home to a company like Hometap-Use the equity in your home as collateral on a loan from a private investor -Get a low interest credit card that is secured by your home equityAll of these options still require a healthy down payment and a good deal with returns that are above and beyond your cost of capital so that your debt is levering up your profit vs levering up your losses.

It'll be a 2nd lien to extract the equity.

You could try to extract equity in the form of a HELOC but that presents it's unique risks if you have a floating rate. 

You'll find two major classes of software, and they both enable you to accept online payments for your tenants.The more mature platforms that are designed for landlords/property managers include Rentec Direct, Buildium, Appfolio, Propertyware, and Rent Manager.