In 2015 I will retire from my 9-5 and plan to do real estate sales and investing full-time.My primary interest are acquiring single family homes, which I rent out.

While what @Brian Ky says is generally true, it may not apply to you completely.You may withdraw up to $10,000 from your retirement account to purchase your first home (that you will live in) without paying the 10% penalty.  

While schools can be VERY important if your property is family oriented (3+ bedrooms, large yard, etc), it can be far less important if your house is in a retirement community, is a studio or a 1 bedroom, is a trendy "tiny house", is in a work/live space, is right downtown and close to night-life or is otherwise more geared to those without children or who are "pre-child" or "post-child".I have many friends who are either empty-nesters or who are middle-aged and childless that just love finding funky houses, close to the stuff they think is cool and who never even know where the nearest school is, much less know or care how they perform.

I myself am a Veteran who proudly served in the US Navy during Desert Storm, my brother retired in the Army afer 22 years, my sister-in-law was a commissioned officer in the Army and my father served in the Navy during the Korean War on the USS Missouri.

It also changes as you get closer to retirement or don't have underaged kids causing you alarm.

I'd already retired and moved in a couple doors down from Robert Allen.

I am investing both within a taxable account and retirement accounts (Roth, Rollover 401k) With stock investing, I am very happy that I can get excellent asset quality, and great leadership from the best CEOs in the world, for the price of just a few shares, and the transaction costs are tiny, and my investments are liquid!  

Don't know anything about your area but my buy and holds are usually very long term, in fact I always referred to them as my retirement fund.

I do not have losses from the 5 multi families i own and am just wondering if I use Schedule C this year then FAFSA (Federal Student Aid) is more likely to consider me a small business and thereby exclude this asset from financial aid calcs, however if i use E as I have in the past they will count it.I have no other assets or retirement accounts.

Then later I showed him a junker, sfh I am buying from another retiring landlord I know.