With that said, I still have a huge passion and am willing to devote some serious time to finding properties and dealing with people to manage them.I guess I should be asking "If you were in my shoes" - I understand the answer is going to be different coming from someone who relies on the rental cash flow to live.

Let me start off by stating my current situation: my current position at my company is stressful so I’m looking to move to a less expensive city so I can switch careers to something I’m more passionate about.

By covering our mortgage I was able to quit the job I hated and became a mortgage broker for AZ and CA and hope to triple my income because I am so much more passionate about real estate. 

We are planning on moving back to our home state soon and once we get settled, I want to start a program that brings my passion of FIRE and mentoring together and teach kids about financial literacy.

If you have the focus and passion, you do whatever it takes.

The best time to start anything you are passionate about was yesterday..

The only reason I decided to pursue it was the fact that I have a passion to talk RE and I find myself mentoring many new investors or 2nd home owners looking to buy in the area that I’ve met so I figured this could be my niche of clients.

If your drive is to be rich, you will likely end up unhappy even when rich.If instead you do what you love, it doesnt matter if you ever become rich.....but also you have a much higher chance of succeeding and becoming if you are passionate about what you do to make money.My income doing what I love, real estate, is 3-4x higher than pre real estate, and I made a good living pre-real estate. 

My opinion: go get a college degree in a STEM field, get a well paying job, save a lot a money, then you can really explore your passion.

On this site you'll find a lot of people who are very passionate about RE Investing.