For someone with earned income or assets you can peruse a garnishment of wages to get repayment of a judgment fairly easily. 3) Do not assume because his income is guaranteed that this means your rent payments are guaranteed.

Then you would typically get 15-20% of the returns above that 8-12% in addition to the returns earned on your own equity going forward. 

Ten of those houses will earn my company $1,600 a month.

Put every dollar you earn into the HELOC until you need to use it to pay bills.

@Rudy Nieves Being on the other end of my Navy career, I just wanted to say congrats on using your deployment time to read and get educated.

NET of *all* expenses, management fee, maintenance, future maintenance - I think it's a realistic 3.5% yearly return and it seems like there is not a shortage of tenants, and rents have indeed risen.3.5% is certainly not my goal in life....but I figured this is better than 1.5% that cash earns in low-risk accounts, so why not 3.5% in a low risk house.  

Break down the returns you have earned from your current properties and be able to talk about them/increase them over the years.

And, since I’m having a difficult time thinking of businesses, if I get into real estate, could this be a potential means to having a new career and focus as a real estate investor?

These type of properties are management intense, so you earn your cash flow.

I was curious if anyone has any recommendations as to what I can do to prepare for the start of my real estate investing career.