BiggerPockets has a huge wealth of information, and I'd encourage you to read everything you can on here.In terms of your goals, one of the best ways to get involved with investing in real estate, is to start off by working a regular job. 

That should  be a 'once in your life due to a family emergency thing,' not a normal routine way to pay rent.

Return deposit & find regular tenants.2.

Consider what I saw routinely - a teenage girl has a baby out of wedlock, works part time and gets 1,000 of EIC.

@Joe Splitrock  good catch.having been in the finance side of distressed assets for more than a few decades I see this stuff routinely.. you should see the 5 hoarder houses I bought this year... stuffed to the rafters with stuff stink so bad you need a bunny suit..

The mortgage was about what we would have paid for a regular house and we rented out the other side.  

I regularly install egress windows for about $1000 in materials, I could probably find less expensive materials...

Having owned and operated a small business, I found that setting long term goals, action plans to get there, and re-assessing those goals and plans on a regular basis helped me tremendously. 

I was thinking along the lines of you being an investor on your own, but it seems like you're buying properties on a regular basis.I'm sure you know the best incentive for the listing agent is making more commission.  

My business is real estate, but on the securities side.My feedback to you is there are what feels like a million realtors in Bend already, the market swings high and low regularly so there are really big highs and really low lows......coming to Bend to start a secondary RE practice might be really difficult.