forget it...that ship sales years ago!

Nathan makes some good points.I would be hesitant to run out and by 4 or 5 properties in just one year and then ship off to Europe.

Once the property is ready, find a tenant and manage the property on a long term basis.Obstacle A and C can easily solved by finding a good Realtor who is local to the area and build a relation ship with him/her.

shortly there after, i hired a property manager, built a relation ship with a set quality contractors and found ways to automate the business.

A rising tide raises all ships.

Hope this helps.I've been doing a lot of research on this the past year, and this is what I've found (I could be wrong of course):Material prices aren't too much different around the country if you shop around for suppliers (there are differences in areas where shipping is more difficult and costly), and labor prices are surprisingly consistent (though there is a range of about 25-35%) if you ignore the high priced areas.Obviously, there will be regional differences in both labor and materials (especially in places where climate, soil and natural conditions impact building codes), but if you ignore places like NY, NJ, California, etc, you'll find that prices generally fall within 25-50%.I see you're in NJ, so you can probably throw the prices I mention out the window, but for a surprisingly large % of the country (especially between the coasts), prices will be pretty consistent within a 25-35% range.All that said, this is a topic I'm very interested in, and would love other data points, as I could be wrong

Whether you buy land and cruise timber or farm or do orchards,pizza joints,industrial property it has to be in your personality for it to work.

Even the start up tech companies all packed up and shipped out in the late 90's; Mindbranch (used to work there), Tripod.It had it's boom days back in industrial revolution when factories needed fast moving rivers to create power and wash away waste.

If I were the OP I would jump ship by now!

Even working through school and taking your core classes at a community college and not going to a flag ship school 30-40k in debt isnt uncommon.