You are going to rock this.I highly recommend reading Brandon Turner's book on how to invest with no or little down payment. 

I live in Castle Rock and use a guy named Eric Cook with Barker Financial Services in Littleton.

Or allow him to break his lease n kick rocks 

No one really wants to say this out loud, but your income needs to be very strong in order to do this well and still be in good shape financially.

Of course, everyone wants to beat rising rates, we hear that loud and clear from our clients, it creates extra urgency.For agents this market is brutal - ironically everyone wants to become a real estate agent right now; it has never been harder to make it to a paycheck as long as I can think back.

You will never understand how much you can earn when you ask the wrong people and when you don't focus on learning the math.With no big head, I feel like I am one of the best real estate analysts you will ever meet because I don't charge money and I will do the math, extensively, turn over every rock and look under every leaf, for free, only for investors who don't treat the business like a hobby and for investors who don't want to be a shadow, but do want to work hard enough to really learn, understand the business and actually want to make their own smart and final decisions.   

Personally unless he is smashing holes in the walls, tearing up the yard, or annoying neighbors with loud exhaust pipes I'd let him stay.

There are some very good towns and cities in that direction such as Round Rock, Georgetown, Leander.

And if I can do it while being in the military, you can do it too.Whether you buy out of state or not, I would underwrite for the property management expense, unless you are a rock star property manager.

Most people I work with live in primary markets (as opposed to Birmingham, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Memphis, Little Rock, Jacksonville, Ohio, or other secondary or tertiary markets) where the Rent-to-Value Ratios are under 1%.