There might have been a downturn in job prospects.

Here is their website:https://www.recenter.tamu.edu/This is their housing activity page where you can dive into specific areas  a little more and how the market has changed over the years:https://www.recenter.tamu.edu/data/housing-activit...I also work with a real estate investment firm here in Austin, so if you have any questions feel free to reach out!

To muddy the waters a bit more, some brokerage firms will also set up a Solo 401k or Individual 401k which meets the description above.

If you can't afford to mail for at least 6 months (1 mailer to each prospect a month), then hold off until you have the funds.  

I read all of the top mindset books, how to prospect for leads and even how to generate leads.

If you are showing and finding the prospective tenant and they are just assisting with paperwork, it might be cost effective.  

When you do that, the firm MUST respond and resolve it satisfactorily or they could be fined, have their license suspended or even revoked!

Private equity firms buying up all investment properties at the moment. 2017... needing something to happen to force/require a sell off so I can jump in.

Understand and practice creative financing, nothing down techniques, control and roll systems,  Power  prospecting and contract engineering.

Many of these will be too small for the big commercial brokerages but you can always check the commercial divisions/specialists at the residential firms like COLDWELL, Remax, hunt, etc. these folks have $500k sales all the time.