I have been a member of this site for about 3 years and have never learned it all but I feel ready to get started but my wife does not think I have recovered enough from my medical problems. 

If you're buying for rental then breakeven is the best you can hope for. rental prices have a LONG way to go to make SFR profitable here IMO and the rate of rental increase seems far slower than the appreciation rate.

I am human and I have a child myself so if I were a tenant and my daughter needed medical help, you can bet every property you own that my daughter would be my one and only priority.

I believe I just read realtor.com predicts 2018 to be another good year for RE albeit it slower that say the last 3.

Cap rates are pretty low right now and the higher cap rates come with more risk... and if you're just starting out that could be bad.Not trying to talk you out of anything... deals do exist, but it's likely going to move much much slower than you'd expect.

I'm currently a medical device sales rep for a large corporation.

After many years in the field (I want to forget what I learned due to the horrible things you see in the medical field) from abuse and beyond.

I just look at areas with large medical companies as employers.

Needless to say, one medical catastrophe could wipe out all my hard-earned investments. 

There are some really interesting up and coming areas where we are seeing some strong returns and more stabilized areas that are seeing a slower but steady increase in value.