I really enjoyed the credit card travel points one.It would be cool to do one different ways of earning horizontal income

YES - on including the management fee in your underwriting (financial analysis) and this expense will reduce your NOI (net operating income) which will lower your purchase price.In computing value for multi's, Value is determined by dividing your NOI by Cap Rate. 

The goal is often common as to buy one at below market price with an opportunity to add value, raise rents, reduce expenses (increase NOI/Reposition it) and sell (or re-fi) within 5-7 years based on loan terms and exit strategy.

Maybe they'll let you co-invest and earn something, too.We didn't even get into how you were planning to pay for this.

I'm hoping to also include seller assisst to reduce my out of pocket costs too which i'm sure is a negative!

I have high income and generate $150k in excess earnings per year which I used over the last few years to build my investment portfolio.

I faced this recently with an expecting couple where she earned far more than him, and he didn't earn enough to qualify alone.

There are ways to reduce the burden of short-term rentals such as hiring cleaning, a management team, etc.

Is there something I could be overlooking as far as "jobs" or careers that would lend to increasing my knowledge in this field while I  work to earn cash and learn while preparing to launch off on my own?

He handled our refinance smoothly even reducing our interest from 5.5% to 5.375%.