I got 2 happy video testimonials out of it for proof...

Limited only by creativity and passion to succeed.

We intend to transition to work that we are truly passionate about with little regard for financial gain.

You should really checkout the video called "How to Invest in Condos" that was recently posted on the "Confident Real Estate" YouTube channel.

Sure would be fun to see a video of how everything works together to demystify the process.

My real passion is real estate. 

Unless you are super passionate about it or if it was a property you wanted to visit yourself from time to time (not sure why you would in this situation), I would probably just make it a regular rental for now and leverage the college as your primary source of rental traffic, but hopefully catering to responsible students (who are not going to party and thrash you home) or professors or other support staff for the college. 

So far I've devoured books, blogposts and youtube videos on different topics, but one that I'm not yet 100% comfortable is the methodology on finding a market to invest on.I live in CA and I think the prices are crazy high right now, so I'm evaluating other area, but need a good framework to select it based on my investing goals.What would you say are good techniques to pick a market to invest on?

I have several contractors that I would gladly recommend and I am passionate about finding deals. 

For more information on that, check out "Tax Smart Real Estate Investors" on youtube, and find videos tagged with short term rental loophole (many of which can be found in the playlist "The Real Estate CPA Podcast").