My wife is a professor at the private university a block over, which means we knew the area pretty well.

The Mortgage Professor has some calculators on his site, but I recommend getting a standard finance textbook and learning to build a simple spreadsheet and how mortgage math works.  

“The theme of this forecast across all the markets in the state, Kansas City included, is more of the same,” said forecast author Stanley Longhofer, a professor and director of Wichita State’s Center for Real Estate.A Flourish data visualisationHe expects home prices in the Kansas City area will rise by nearly 5% next year.Longhofer said strong economic indicators, like low unemployment rates and growth in jobs, continue to drive the housing market in Kansas City.

At first I thought this would kill any and all potentiol but I have been quiet lucky to have both rooms booked for about 2/3 of the year.Being that there is a huge housing shortage around here and property taxes are what I consider to be high for this rural area, the airBnB thing has been kinda nice and I am seriously thinking about buying another property for furnished long term 'corporate' housing to professors, travel nurses, Phd students, etc. 

I don’t want to live on this planet anymore (Professor Farnsworth meme) 

From my research and advice I have gotten from professors and contacts, I have a couple paths to choose from: 1 -continuing my architecture education and work experience with developers until I get my architecture license (3-4 years) , and then enter the development game partnering with an investor to either do a residential flip, or a simple single-family house development.2 -Keep doing architecture freelancing jobs, plus broadening my real estate contacts through real estate clubs, events, meetups, etc.

Our situation is a bit unique in that my husband is a professor so we get a great housing program from the university he works at. 

You can pay cash for a house; see if one of your left wing professors will lend you the money under terms more beneficial to yourself, of you can move to one of the few remaining countries more closely aligned with your economic philosophy, Cuba or North Korea.

I'll answer those quickly:- The landlord is an old college professor, and she's been discussing wanting to sell the property for over a year now.

If you do want to attract students, I would go for the graduate students and young professors that have gotten past their partying days.