You'll want to learn more ways to increase your income now and in the future, keep your expenses low, and take the difference to invest into assets, real estate/business.I'm a huge fan of the house hack and this will probably be one of the best strategies for you to get started and take action while giving you a great return because of the low % down needed to get started.

We plan to have new floors put in and re-do both the kitchens and bathrooms, put new floors everywhere, fix some drywall issues, install electric fireplaces where the old gas ones are, replace the a/c units, install more efficient bathroom fans for better circulation, move laundry room to the kitchen and make the dining room half kitchen and half dining room, as well as a few other things. 

One "student" has a side gig: mining bitcoin - lookup what open pit mining rigs look like on Amazon- ten fans, thousand wires.Or they have a grow in closet or in the bathroom -black or silver plastic with zippers and lots of vents and fans.Bill it to tenants they all know who is doing the power grab.

@Marian Fine FruehI tried RentRedi and not a fan of it.I recently just switched to Buildium for accounting purposes to help with my clients.Closing cost is not an expense unless you plan to flip.

I'm not really a fan of big cities like Chicago but I might be interested if the area is good and I can attract great tenants.

Funny enough, it is also the most expensive program I saw outside of a few other ivy league offerings. 

Same with the appraisal although I am not a fan of the subjectivity of appraisals.   

Although we have owned it for 4 years, we just realized that the bathroom and kitchen fans don't vent outside the building.

I live and invest in SD and am not a big fan of townhomes/ condos because of HOA oversight and lack of options.In a market as expensive as San Diego you really have to find value add opportunities to make the numbers work.

You can also check meetup.com or search facebook for real estate investment groups, clubs, or meetings in your area.I'm a big fan of owner financing.