It takes a little more work since I'm out of country and not employed by an American company.  

You may need to put down a larger down payment to make up for the short self employment history or find you a seller financier.

I would absolutely LOVE an online tenant screener where tenants can apply online, and I get a report within 48 hours.In doing my research, I have only been able to find just one company that does a complete tenant screening:Criminal historyCredit reportEviction historyResidential historyEmployment historyCalling and verifying references for residential and employment history for past 2 yearsAnd that company is the National Tenant Network, NTN, at ntnonline.com.

Sometimes, it takes an agent with some years of experience in the area to know which properties to include as "comparable" - to address that issue that Mark mentioned above.My agent partner, Angela with Keller Williams, loves me because I give her all my warm leads of people that really want to list (i.e, get a retail offer), and she does CMAs for me all the time, employing her 8 years of experience in our market here.  

Also, since their services can be very time limited, there is always the issue of the tenant finding suitable employment, keeping said employment, the employer not jerking the tenant around (especially with low income workers, it goes both ways), etc. not to mention whatever other issues, be they family, substance use disorders, disabilities, etc. that could have contributed to them being in need of a high level of services.

The financing must be non-recourse and there is a tax implication on the income derived from the borrowed funds (UDFI), but this can be a very powerful means to invest using leverage and achieve a higher cash-on-cash return for your IRA dollars as a result.You  cannot rollover Roth IRA funds into a Solo 401k, although such a vehicle may be of interest to you going forward since you are self-employed.

Now to go make my employer a little sad, Im going to have to cut my hours to learn more in this industry, to really reach my goals in the next 2 to 3 years.

I like the long-term prospects of Richmond because it is so affordable and still has a reasonable commute to major employment centers like SF, Oakland, Walnut Creek, etc.

I'll just have to battle through the beginning stages, and rely on the income from my current employment to get me rolling.

I'm full time employed but when I'm not traveling, I'm driving for dollars.