I would focus on repairing your credit. see a specialist (faster) or open credit cards little by little and pay them off each month. im not saying increase your spending, just saying instead of buying that tank of gas in cash use a cc and immediately pay it off. while your credit is repairing, start banking cash. build a budget and stick to it. 80K a year is good money, make it a goal of yours to retain as much of it as possible i.e. don't eat out, don't go to the local pub, drive a modest paid off car etc. once your credit is up and savings is up, use the 80k a year plus savings to get leverage. then use that leverage to buy your properties. if your looking for a get rich quick scheme, id advise u skip over RE. don't get me wrong, you can make money fast by flipping homes but you didn't mention having experience in that area so I assume you don't. another option if your really in a hurry is to find a partner with experience and cash, and see if you can buy into one of his/hers deals. you would have to market yourself for this and see what type of skills they may need that you have. maybe you can buy in and use your web development skills to beef up and/or maintain your partners website saving them money on outsourcing. that might be your ticket into a partnership. since you mentioned your helping your friend, maybe you can partner with him?

@Tom Gimer  good ole boy wink wink has gone away in Oregon as well... not that the Doj per say did anything just too many players chasing the same deals.the day I decided to take our 10 million out of the foreclose bizz and turn it into HML was this:opening bid 80k  home worth 170k  rehab 30k  32 qualifiers with opening bid checks thats 2.4 million in cashiers checks chasing one deal that ultimately sold with maybe a 10k margin...

Always keep your options open. 

The thing holding them back from signing the lease is an opening between the two bedrooms (they want it walled off).

She went in to investigate and saw a q-tip on the floor and the medicine cabinet open. 

With Houston being an hour away from us, it opens quite a few doors locally.

I agree with @Ray Harrell, splitting the utility bill between tenants is just opening up a can of worms. 

You do it when your open market transaction dictates it.

And do you have an area in mind you want to live, or are you pretty open? 

I thought it was a good idea to open a company and put it under its name as to build a company asset.