Being in school so intensely for so long means you probably don't have any specific RE experience to bring to the table, so you're going to have to fake it while you make it (as they used to say:-)Learn some RE skills.

In more detail, this would be my advice, based on what friends have done:  Buy a house with a lot of bedrooms and bathrooms for its price with a walk-out basement; have other people (usually servicemembers) as roommates, renting by the room; house-hack the basement into another unit, and as long as you don't install a stove you stay legal where you aren't allowed to subdivide but you can still have a large toaster oven, a hot plate, and a full sized fridge; then you have two complete units (local-style) when you are deployed elsewhere that will result in a decent positive cashflow and, if you bought in the right place, probably appreciation; cash out whenever the market surges and invest in somewhere that cashflows better with all your profits.  

Frequently people screw in the wrong size fuse and that can result in the fuse not popping in an overload and that is one of the reasons breakers are a better option.  

Cost currently are crazy high in most places and given the size of your estimate, as 20% change would have dire consequences ($36k swing is alot of cash). 

A huge part of the population works in service industries and more than $750 a month is more than they can pay and still put food on the table. 

Bottom line: “When it’s all said and done, 2021 will go down as a year when housing affordability went from bad to really bad, especially in mid-sized markets,” per Apartment List’s Rob Warnock.

At $2k a month income, that barely will keep maintenance, insurance, and taxes on a house, a car gassed, insured and maintained, medicine/medical expenses, and food on the table. 

@John Hamm I can’t speak to Cleveland but the Atlanta market right now is extremely competitive and prices have gotten insane, it’s doable but it might be worth looking at other medium sized cities around Georgia.

The owners of the company bend over backward to push closings to the table.

Crisp white trim, no shutters on the left window (they are the wrong size and look absurd), black shutters on the right, mid gray roof, yellow door. here you go, with yellow door:  with" class="redactor-autoparser-object">https://i0.wp.com/freshouz.com... black shutters: