Then, when they enroll in the local schools, I had to sign an affidavit certifying they are tenants, on the lease, and furthermore I'm responsible for fines, and reimburse the town for money spent on educating an illegal resident.

You really need to balance the opportunity cost of the interest you'll save with the returns you can make by investing that $400/month or however much you can scrape together.If you want to get real nerdy, you can download a loan amortization spreadsheet, plug in the extra payments, compare the interest saved each month versus what it'd be if you keep the loan as is, and discount the NPV into today's dollars. 

Educated buyers are only going to purchase a property that can produce a decent return, and that means total revenue minus total costs. 

@Greg Cobb if you are just getting started best advice is to get educated.

Today the grandmother "kicked her out".

Today’s LVRJ has an article about invitation homes ones one of the largest SFR homes landlords.

Any suggestions on how to educate myself on keeping an eye out for deals so I am ready when the opportunity presents itself?

I was d4d today and looked up a house that had the owner named as a Trust.

I actually have somebody coming in today and asking for a quote on this.

Now that i am out of the military working in a new W2 career, i am trying to get back into the RE investing and actually understand how to invest more appropriately and correctly compared to just purchasing houses that i would like to live in...Currently i have about 80k saved up for my next investment deal and just feel like im coming up short on anything even coming close to 1% rule, so to see if there are ways to invest it, i figured i would ask the public how they would go about investing the money, because i am always up for learning something new.If possible, could you throw a quick example or maybe a short answered deal you could possibly go buy today in your own market to get an idea...I am currently searching up to 2hrs from the Tampa, FL area.