@Daniel Sabato - Properties naturally appreciate in value over time.

What is the typical cost for something legal in this nature to be created?

Would you rather be home based in the Bay Area with tons of things to do nearby, good weather, lots of nature, etc. or someplace with little culture, extreme temperatures, bland immediate environment, etc., etc. 

Tried Mint, YNAB, and other online tools before but nothing beats the flexibility of excel (and I like personal capital for the general view it provides, and the extracts I get of my accounts).

But fortunes in real estate aren’t made from cash flow but rather from capital appreciation through forced and natural ways. 

Just ask people that lost severely because of oil crashing, a natural disaster that ripped through an area, tourism collapsing, a base shutdown, etc.

I’m a researcher by nature and everybody I know tells me I over think things but most of them hate their W-2 job and are doing nothing to get out of it.

Just google "local community banks" or something of that nature. 

@Devon RollisonGetting the return you indicate is possible as about half of our RE we have extracted all the investment for an infinite return. 

Or look larger into a quadplex or something of that nature?