It's been getting more and more difficult to find great deals for all of them lately, so I've been exploring the idea of either building some for-rent housing units myself and selling them as turnkey properties, or assisting clients with this process of building their own for-rent units.

I actually have a partner I am working with but we have not yet explored private lending.

If you are ready for that, explore the rehab loan products (might be a decent deal for you as you'd have to hire a gc anyway not being local, so 20% more costly but thats just business.) in your name, you and your siblings names or your mothers.

Unconfirmed, but the asking price was too high to explore further.

Personally, I would at least explore what it looks like to trade up in greater detail.

I believe any working experience is good experience---doing book keeping for multi family will give you an idea of expenses and maintenance and other issues in order for you to evaluate deals better but it sounds like you are not planning on doing real estate full time so in that respect, I'd spend my time getting to understand numbers by mock evaluating properties, exploring and lining up conventional and creative financing and getting to know local realtors, wholesalers and investors who can not only find you deals when you are ready but teach you just through conversation.

@Harrison Lopes, You're thinking right to explore the differences in SF and small MF and larger MF management and investing. 

I am very interested in buying real estate and if 20k worth of student loans paid off can be added to an already good deal, I would like to explore my options for making this work.

In the process of trying to build a team and thought it would be worth also exploring BP in addition to the individuals I have spoken with already for some contractor referrals.

In addition to this, the NON QM options have started to make their way back into the space.Long and the short is, before someone jumps into an investment, there are many avenues to explore when it comes to financing options.