Our area is a small bedroom community with a great school district and population growth.

Im one of those Chicago Public School teachers that everyone in Illinois loves to hate, plus my family and kids are here so I wont be going anywhere anytime soon. 

Let him be a kid, focus on school for a few more years yet.

We would prefer to not rent to sex offenders as we are in a condominium as well as close to a school though greater than 1000 ft from a school (~2000ft).  

Since I'm coming out of grad school, and my fiance is in grad school for a few more years, cash on hand is pretty limited for a down payment and closing costs.

Many just hire you and leave you to figure things out for yourself, and that's super hard because real estate licensing school teaches you nothing about how to be an RE agent and get clients.

We actually got an off market house a month ago in Napa off silverado trail near the middle school but my partner ended up wholesaling it out as the market is risky now so we are only buying lower end (Under $450) homes to flip at this time. 

@Mike Gennaro Mike, Mobile rents in this one particular area I've been mining can be in the $1,100-$1,300 range (best schools in the area, other housing options $300-$400 higher, etc.), but people are selling homes in the $50,000 to $80,000 range on rented land, which means a high commitment of cash and a lower ROI. 

As for sex offenders, I personally would never rent to one, and if you do, make sure your house is far enough away from churches, parks, schools, etc. to satisfy criteria.

Purchase price too high vs rent too low.You might do better to just buy a home that you want to live in, that's in a nice neighborhood with good schools, and then buy a second home for investment that might be cheaper and in a different area that makes more sense to get a combination of rent vs purchase price.Most duplexes are in residential neighborhoods....but may not be the neighborhood you want to live in or in single family neighborhoods.