Truthfully, my sights are set more on eliminating my expenses and living more frugally in the next few years than they are set on becoming some sort of millionaire investor—but I think that if my first deals are successful, I can definitely see myself wanting to take on real estate as a serious career pursuit a little further down the road.

-Laith  Hey Laith,If you can go conventional, that's the least expensive way to go. 

But once our expenses are covered, what is our emphasis.  

Do not mix your personal expenses with business on the same credit card, checking account...

This can be very expensive and is usually the worst choice because you can't justify the cost.2.

You estimated 5% ($100) each for maintenance and capital expenses which is good, BUT you entered $0 for vacancy and $0 for management.

In other words, it seems to me that the data in this study is skewed and incomplete.2) Okaloosa Island is a "tale of two cities": the south beach side of expensive condos and the up and coming north side, where only a small portion allows short term rentals.

Since I bought this last property, it has been a headache, I have to go often to do repairs, the last repair was replacing a water heater of 75 gallons which cost almost $3k (too expensive).

Can we declare the rehab expenses as rental expenses before you have tenant?  

I may have an expensive solution if you'd like to PM.