And maybe hoping my endeavor will continue to inspire our children to see, learn and motivate them into looking at this for themselves. 

Hope that helps!

Get a roommate, hopefully a property that needs some cosmetic love, even better if it's a small MFH.Rinse and repeat every couple of years, slowly build some equity, cash flow, knowledge, experience and relationships and then you can do bigger, and more unique things. 

Hope your in a better spot now with this rental! 

Thomas The neighborhood is great and I've decided to place bandit signs next week - hopefully they'll help!

I would start with ( and I hope you do ) bank with a local small community bank that is going to be your best bet and cheapest money..

I am looking at buying another property cash for 65k putting 12k into it and having it appraise for around $80k in hopes of creating a portfolio loan, if that is even a possibility at this point.

This sounds tricky - I recommend talking to a ledner (many are on the forums here, hopefully one will answer).It is vital that you be careful to avoid mortgage fraud.

I hope that makes sense.

Hopefully that helps a little bit!