I work full time as a Operations Manager and a semester away from college graduation, so I'm pretty busy and from what I read investing in real estate becomes a full-time job.Any advise would help, should I search for "multi-families" or "flips"?  

I graduated college last May, started a job in January, and am hoping to buy my first multifamily in the next year. 

I recently selected a tenant who worked at a local college, after she passed the background check, in part because her source of income is not correlated with the local economy.This type of analysis should still be completed for investors in large urban areas with diverse employment opportunities for tenants.

I spend 90% of my time in Cincinnati and practically live there so would be happy to meet up with you. 

Ideally, both.However some reasoning I have seen and feels logical is as follows:If you reduce your expenses by $X, you have saved $X.If you increase your income by $X, you have generated $X - taxes - value of time worked to earn that money - any other factors.So in terms of low-lying fruit (what is easiest/quickest to accomplish) cutting expenses AND THEN SAVING THE DIFFERENCE is what I would recommend doing first.My wife and I put this into practice. 

No one was bidding and I'm thinking $4500 for a 3-1 in a college town?!? 

Good luck on your test, it's not that bad, I recommend doing the practice test over and over until you average around 85-90% before taking the state exam.

I am a college student living in north Alabama while I am home for the summer.

Is it close to any colleges, etc.?

So if you have a cap rate of 10 to 12, then you are making about 10-12% on your cash purchase price.If you do have a loan, then if your loan interest rate and associated annualized costs (APR) is below your cap rate, then your actual return goes up.In practice, cap rates on deals in San Diego are from 4 to 9 percent depending on the area.