Philly has some hot rental/short term rental areas, that you can take advantage of.

They save money, being from a state with one of the highest real estate appreciation situations, you have to look for every opportunity to have an advantage over your competitors and I think this is one great selling point which will work in your favor.2.

Profits stay in the private sector.Is this how a free-ish market enterprise economy is supposed to work, with the gov't competing with the private sector, while retaining market advantages for themselves? 

I suspect Arizona has a clear advantage when it comes to affordability.

Hello, I am a freshman in college in Virginia and my university allows students to live off campus for the last 2 years of school, and most students take advantage of this opportunity because the on-campus housing is lacking to say the least.

Some banks offer the advantages of online and still have a brick and mortar presencence; Capital One.

I hope this will give me some advantage in my quest to build wealth through REI.  

But if you could lower your overhead by house-hacking, not only are you saving the $ difference every month, you're no longer throwing money away on rent, while building equity through loan paydown and property appreciation and taking advantage of rising rental income over time (plus various tax benefits). 

Maybe you could consult with an attorney that does not have an interest in either process but works with both processes and go over the advantages, disadvantages for both entities. 

You definitely want to network and take advantage of the connections the more experienced folks have made.