Get the best possible location you can afford and let your guests subsidize your living expenses. 

I only took out a 50K heloc though when I was living there cause I didn't want to be tempted.

If I still lived in SoCal, I would still buy out of state.

If you want it to be a job then what are your greatest skills in real estate and what is it that you enjoy about it?

This keeps the finances of your personal and business lives separate.

I try not to do referrals in the forums due to the fact that these messages live on in perpetuity, and who I am recommending today might be completely different than who I am recommending a year or two down the road.

I live in Stormstown and work in State College. 

You might want to expand your scope to search for SFH+ADU, and live in the ADU portion.

Goal: Build a passive income from rentals that will allow my husband, my daughter, and myself to live on mission for Jesus Christ.

- to me this was another way of saying "I am going to have some of my undocumented employees living here (yes they disclosed some undocumented individuals, however, the potential leaseholder is documented)Someone please talk some sense into me LOL this is my only official applicant as of now.