I'm a recent graduate who'd like to begin building a buy and hold rental empire in northern NJ - with a specific focus on college towns and out of favor markets (e.g.

Our cars might be in friend's house or in the storage unit.

As some background, I am a semi-recent college grad (class of 2014) and have spent the last few years working for the US Senate.

. - It is very possible they just signed the first person they could, or relaxed the criteria, or didn't try or didn't at all verify their previous rental.

@Jason Homa there's a previous post about this a few years ago, but I don't think prices have changed a lot.

Jim Ostler We are currently developing our portfolio in the Chicagoland area, as previous responses have said finding owners isn’t the easiest task but most owners who are up for this allow you to do this with multiple properties.

I run ads regularly for my storage units.

Parris,Mine was a duplex - house hack 1 mile away from my first job out of college (Morristown, TN). 

I've only ever accepted digital payments from my tenants but I know at least a few of them have previously paid rent via check, and had purchased and used their checkbook SOLELY for paying rent once a month.

Congratulations on nearing graduation from college.