I spend much of my time traveling, and want to make a transition to travel less and to create an avenue of passive income that could eventually become my primary source.

The off market deals come from a variety of sources but most the off market listings are not very impressive.  

Podcasts were my primary source of education & what gave me the confidence to make the plunge. 

Syndications are (in my biased opinion) the best source for passive income.

. :)If your future plan is to someday maybe rent out by the room, Fannie Mae will not go for that, since that would be a wide open door for people that don't have the income to qualify for what they want to just make up fictitious possible hypothetical future income sources that may or may not ever exist or pan out.

I like the search features: https://www.biggerpockets.com/search

There are multiple sources of legal risk when it comes to investing in real estate.

@Matt Watson Since I should clarify that locality does affect the statutes in place regarding renting to applicants with low income housing vouchers, the entire State of Washington made it illegal to refuse to rent to a qualified applicant based upon source of income in September 2018.

I know the 20% will get rid of PMI but I am wondering are there any sources that would do a 3.5% down on a investment property?

I like the search features: https://www.biggerpockets.com/search