This seems insane (and wasted expense) for a simple transfer between two trusted parties.

@Rich you can renew you just can't be the party that terminates the lease. 

Welcome to Texas.....come join the party.#1....Figure out where you will work and get jobs and a few paychecks under your belt.#2....Get with a loan officer to get prequalified or underwritten for a loan to see what you will need for down payment, closing costs, prepaid fees.#3....Get a realtor and go shopping.Texas is a giant place....for example Dallas to El Paso is 1/2 way to LA.....so 1/2 the trip is within Texas...so you'll probably want to buy in a combination of close to where you will work, then in the price range that fits your income or borrowing power.

If there is a third party that can handle those issues for you then it might be worth it but that will come at a cost too. 

I added the 'gitters' part.  I

I guess trying to figure out those two questions is the tough part. I

It was a win win for both parties.

Since you had to ask your question, you are not ready or qualified to invest other people's money and before you do you need to have a conscience and be aware that you are putting other people's money at a high risk if you don't have what it takes to find the right property, have the ability to manage tenants, have the ability to do the math, keep the property in good condition, have a good handle on how to do clean recordkeeping, how do accurate bookkeeping, send your investors reports, how the taxes work for every party, how to deal with contractors and maintenance, how to evict tenants and get new tenants quickly and the list is much longer.

They feel that if they hand over their prized asset to a third party, the other people will not be able to run it as efficiently as they do themselves.You must realize that when you are a landlord, you are in the tenant business.

The turnover rate and having attended a few huge house parties while in college were the primary two reasons I decided against it.