As far as finding mentors go, perhaps "The Ultimate Guide to Finding Incredible Mentors" would be of use to you!

Larger apartment buildings were also popular for students to live at in my college town and all of those companies used separate leases for each individual person.

All other monthly expenses ~$500 (tenant pays,water, heat, etc, property is tax abated for the next 10 years, with annual taxes  currently projected at ~8k).While nobody has a crystal ball, I suspect it may keep going up by about 5% per year, a pretty popular area in Brooklyn, NY.I lived there myself for the first 3 years and have rented it for the past 18 months, the current tenant moving out, rental demand is very strong, getting someone else should be no problem or can provide vacant if decided to sell.  

ALL the other renters on my floor do Airbnb currently (but I do not). 1 in 5 apartments in popular parts of NYC is on Airbnb:http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2015/07/29/in_popula...

The learning has been incredible, and it has really given me a much better sense that this is in fact do-able!

https://www.recp.org/ ^ Looks to be pretty popular.

I found this incredible duplex that's close Universities, Downtown and it's about a mile to a very highly desired area.

Be sure to look up @Mark Ferguson he is an incredible resource. 

The returns you're talking about on the properties above are incredible. 

One thing I've mentioned before a few times as a caution to any "out of town" investors looking to buy in the lower or lowest priced areas of the city of Milwaukee (and that can honestly mean someone from across the country, or even a fellow city resident, especially say if they live in one of the very expensive parts of the city, or just outside of the immediate area they're investing in) because the city has had enough of people who see these incredibly low sale prices with comparably high rents and who want to come in and collect every last penny in rent, but pinch their pennies to an extreme when it comes to upkeep and especially the safety of their tenants.