Good luck in your career.

My name is Brad and I just got my first real career job where I'll actually be able to set money aside and not continue living paycheck to paycheck (Wahoo!).

do you envision yourself eventually doing something in real estate full time and be an active real estate investor, or do you like your job/career path?

It only makes sense if you are in a very expensive market like CA or the NE coast and you have a huge economic delta - like earning money in San Francisco and investing in Milwaukee. 

I currently work full time as an airline pilot but unfortunately I currently don't earn enough to save for a down payment.

You need to create a spreadsheet either on the old-fashioned spreadsheet paper, with Excel.You need to calculate the profits for hundreds or thousands of properties to determine what your profits will be based on many things I am not going to list because I am on prescribed narcotic, but some of them start with purchase price, rental income profits after all expenses, profits earned from your tenant's help paying down your mortgage, the amount you will earn from expected appreciation (but you can't believe one word anyone tells you about how a property will appreciate, the other 10 or 20 things my brain can't think of and my next most-important thing you (nobody else can or will do this for you).You never estimate how much you earn on a property by listening to anyone because the numbers almost never look pleasant during the period the property is for sale.

They're there to earn your business and lenders need to lend to make money. 

I'm curious about what the career is like and if it's doable as a part-time job while I keep my W-2.

(I don't use the foreign tax exclusion because I invest in a ROTH IRA and they won't allow that.)Not sure if anyone would have some advice for us. or would be able to help us work with us on this but my wife and I together earn between 60 to 80 thousand a year in USD of course it can vary on the exchange rate.

I have a background in FP&A and I'd like to leverage that as well as my interest in real estate (and some savings) into some investments and potentially a career/lifestyle longer term.