Thus, I find myself having to look into ways I can still support and grow as a part of this community.My main trade is functioning as a Linux Systems Engineer on an R&D team in Melbourne FL.

While I support great deals, please dont take advantage of a little old lady.

How should we adjust for finished basement sqft with respect to coming up with the range of $/sqft that a neighborhood can support?

Most successful larger investors I know in Philadelphia don't GC their own stuff, they just find better deals that support a GC expense.

If they do, you can also meet with those brokers and ask if they’re looking to hire new agents, what the costs will be and what kind of support and training you’ll get, etc.As an agent you’ll be working for or “under” a broker, so choosing a good one is important and can even make the licensing process smoother for you if you can find a good one before you take the classes and new agent exam.There are a lot of little technicalities like DBR (RI Division of Business Regulation) forms and fees, required Errors and Omissions insurance, etc. and you’ll need to have a broker for some of that so the sooner you identify one you want to work with/for, the better.

Note, with rents rising, low income and government supported households are leaving Hamilton for lower priced jurisdictions.

If I still cannot get a loan then I will have to get more creative, possibly try to find a seller who is comfortable with using seller financing.My long term goal(like many of us here at bigger pockets) is to someday be able to support myself and my future family with just my real estate portfolio and other investments.

Original plan was to house hack and live in the new house and rent out the front until recently when we decided it is time to leave LA and move to Columbus, Ohio where my wife's family lives and where we have more social support and lower cost of living and less congestion - LA is a beautiful and exciting place, but insane to raise a family. 

But then the bigger and more important goal is to grow to much more than that over time so I can GIVE considerably to charities, start ups (especially social cause ones) and self fund my own creative ideas/imagination within healthy limits/hence having our incomes being replaced first.

@Beth Barnes I highly suggest spending the time to pick 2 markets, focus on 1 until factors dictate otherwise, find the best pm you can. they are already plugged in to all the other supporting team members.