If we sell our home, we'd move and live with family or rent while I finish my degree and we can identify a great deal on a duplex.

I went to college and got a business degree that empasized real estate.That same year that I graduated, in 1980, I got a broker license.

Right now, for us, not so much a problem as I still have 6 houses that need renovating to different degrees that we've accumulated over the years, not to mention starting a new business hopefully in the fourth quarter of this year. 

I'm not an expert but I think resilient vinyl planks installed at a 45 degree angle would look great and should meet most of your requirements.

Think of the process as being similar to working toward getting a college degree. 

I got a college degree in business that emphasized real estate.  

I feel that market value is as you say the price that is willingly paid for anything in any degree of repair or finish... now figuring out before the sale the market value is the difficult venture...

I love the idea of property management and the hands on opportunity, but at the same time wondering if the pay level is what I should be aiming for with a degree, and more importantly, what are the future career paths.

Through out my experience in the military, getting a degree in biology, fatherhood, and working as a pharmacy technician, I never thought that I would end up on the verge of flipping houses!

starter rent in any city = the least stable.. the lower rents are generally were the properties are cheaper.. so just a rule of thumb not a law or anything.Also the 2% rule and the other rules were born here on BP out of the Great recession and are not germane anymore in most markets that are rebounding and recovering.. you have a new set of investors who started after 2009 who don't have a perspective other than the screaming deals they got in 09 to 2011   which are not reality today and may never be again at least until the next Global financial crisis.