My wife and I own about 25 properties here locally.

Go to Etsy and search for "rental property tracker," and you will find hundreds of nice spreadsheets to track 10-20 rentals, usually for under $10.Software has extremely helpful features like online payments, marketing syndication (click a button, and your property is advertised on multiple sites), electronic document review/signing, maintenance tracking, and owner reports.

Remember, even your regular 401k/IRA money when you eventually take money out, will cost you a decent chunk of change for income taxes (oh, and state and local too depending on where you live).

3) Check out some of the local meetups that you can find in this forum!

I don't want to post our URL as I don't want to come off as advertising, but I can message you.   

Since I am not local I am hoping some of the experienced investors can tell me which neighborhoods make for great rentals. 

@Kar SunRental prices are hyper localized.

Most of us Don't live here or have property here.You would likely have better luck with a local FB group or thumbtac.cim

You want to make sure you work with a local agent expert who knows the streets and knows the leasing cycles of the campus you're on.

Hey Ken, I would look into investing in your local market.