Got back just in time under the edit button!

My intent is to have a different vehicle that grows that is diversified from the typical 401k and IRA investments as well as giving me the ability to access that wealth through cash flow or liquidation of equity at a later point in time before retirement age.

(I'm not intimately familiar with the city, so forgive me if this description is too general)I would suspect most buildings you would look at would be 100+ years old, so expect to need to do some rehab.  

At this point in time your posts indicate clearly that you do not know very much about income investing or property purchasing in general. 

We are licensed agents in two of the states where we invest -- in those states, we market/sell our houses ourselves, as we know the market better than most of the agents in the area.In the other areas, we use agents who are intimately familiar with the area and who have lots of connections and relationships with the big buyer agents in the area.

Granted banks take forever to get back to you, take forever to approve things, and quite often the right hand has no idea what the left hand is doing.That said, in time, they can be worth the hassle and have better payoffs then a wholesale.

I'm going to try to make it back south in time.

BTW 6 months waiting to learn the local market is a small blib in time that could make a huge difference in the long run. 

She then goes on to tell an anecdote of a small part of a city she once knew of that consisted of a very tight nit group of italians that all immigrated their together at one point in time.

Stick with it Paul and it will pay off in time.