I have a full-time job and would like to invest in my first property in the next year.

Get as a high paying job as you can

This will give you peace of mind as well as get you through these humps and allow you to focus on your business or job to work towards accumulating more properties.

There is really no job base or student base to support the high rents. 

Basically it is part of my job :)

Good job calling attention to stuff like that @Jay HinrichsTo the newer investors what the guy was telling you might have sounded totally legit, and the next thing you know someone is getting taken for $800.

Doing an awesome job and getting a ton of referrals is.

I told them to get a red marker and circle each ad that they thought would be a job that they would like. 

Anyways fast forward 10 years and after running my own contracting jobs and doing other things I finally had the money and I didn’t need a partner or private money.

On my last trip it looked like the city government was doing a great job building commerce and supporting businesses.