I also helped a sales rep manage her rental listings for the last few months (currently on hold because she had a family emergency out of state that she is now dealing with).

I am a recent college grad starting to prepare for medical school and would like to start learning how to properly invest in real estate so that I can use it as a second form of income along with fulfilling the interest I have held in this lifestyle for years.

Thus, we started to look at condos*, and although their prices are more compatible with our budget (with enough cushion for emergencies), we fear having a lack of control over HOA fee increases (only one direction to go, in our opinion).

First of all you want to make sure you have some form of Emergency Fund put to the side just in case you have some type of major repairs come up....I did the same thing I bought a single family and then a duplex shortly after.

These are normally necessities like medical care, food and shelter.

This might sound weird but I just Rented a sfh 3/4br 2ba for $2200 to a professional that has a 3yr employment contract with a local medical center.

My current job has me officially supervise 19 direct reports, mostly licensed medical professionals.

I am not sure how much I need to have saved up in reserves, and how much to have as an emergency fund.

If you do have some other source of emergency funds that you can access you should be fine without it.

Great emerging market to invest in.