Fortunately, I had to go pick up my boys, who were now starting middle school basketball, from practice.

I went to college, not that it is mandatory,  and I got a business degree that emphasized real estate.  

We have a number of positively evolving communities, especially near colleges.

Like you said, mortgage rates are between 3.5-4.75% for residential loans on 30 year mortgages, when you then factor in an expected average inflation rate of about 2% and the fact that you can deduct interest that's practically free money.

I am a freshman in college and am interested in real estate investing as soon as possible.

We work full time jobs and both go to college full time ( I'm almost done). 

I just picked up a lead in a college town and I think they are worth looking at. 

There may be a few legitimate ones, but that is not a common practice here in CA, and there are as many bad stories as good.

You have to keep these things in mind and remember you are a business first not a practice or charity. 

I used a paper application that first time, collected personal checks for the credit check and ran that myself, and didn't have a process in place for applicants who were college students with parents willing to pay the rent.