I personally would not buy in low income areas out of state.

Accumulated over $400k a year in passive income.4.

I am not planning on quitting my day job anytime soon but rather my hope is to gradually grow the amount of income I am able to bring in over the next 5 years to be in a position to make Real Estate my full time gig. 

I want to get at least one passive income generator under my belt and then do a few flips for some active income. - my questions are: where do I start?

For me, it was my way of easing into the rental business and also a way for them to start living on their own.So I get less income than I could AND I lose tax breaks?  

You can always start off by house hacking meaning you live in one UNIT or ROOM and renting out the other vacant units/rooms to offset your monthly mortgage payment.There are several ways to run and make sure you are maximizing your rental income while keeping your living expense as low as possible.

I have one of my guys walking a duplex today, All in should be 75k, rents will be 900/900 so about 14k- 15k NET income so 20% ish.

Short of that, the deal seems to be solid once you're able to bring in current market rental income to each unit.

I have no other income than from my 3 STR's. 

I pre-qualify them over the phone, with questions such as:The minimum gross income to qualify is $_______.