Additionally, funding was an issue with traditional lenders.

So you could need to invest around $1M to achieve your goal..if you are doing it the traditional way

And we are both maxing out our traditional and roth. 

@Jeb Brilliant I have, but am wanting to go the traditional route at least at first while I learn the process from start to finish! 

Additionally, with your income, and depending on your expenses, you could consider doing an FHA-multifamily deal with additional grants or first-time homebuyer's grants to reduce the downpayment even more than a traditional FHA.

.$2400 in the green after making the housing payment is actually a lot BETTER than most traditional 'house hackers' do on year 1, and since most students are going into debt to go to school, I came out ahead relative to them too.

Going straight to a traditional lender for a mortgage may seem simple, but this approach will not always guarantee the best loan terms.

Haven't done it yet because at least in my area, building with a shipping container is more expensive than traditional stick frame construction.

If that is something you are not interested in, the next route I would recommend is traditional rental property investing.

What makes it more difficult is that traditional metrics like ROI or cash flow are only snapshots in time.