Once again, I’m not a lawyer and if this went to court the magistrates could go either way...But it sounds like they conceded that money to you by their own choice.

Though the numbers still work, looking back, I wonder if it's smart.

If you don't live in a market that doesn't fit your investment goals like you do, you have no choice to go out of state or else not invest in real estate.

Even if you break even, it will probably be the better financial choice.

Getting licensed is simply the tip of the iceberg and frankly contains none of the street smarts.

There's opportunity to be in had in any market and I bet a lot of smart people are going to make a lot of money if it dips.

Unfortunately, I don't think the property I live in now will pull in enough rental income to cover the mortgage, and on top of that, I'm fairly certain selling the property would actually take money out of my pocket.I do have some time to think about all this, since the company I work for has a travel ban in place right now due to COVID-19, I'm not able to travel to Portland for work yet, but whenever this pandemic ends, this job opportunity and big lifestyle change will be staring me in the face asking for action to be taken.I want to get into real estate investing at some point in my 20's, and I don't want to set myself up for failure by making bad choices with my current situation.

As an update, the current tenants were willing to create a "virtual tour" for us. they basically walked around the house and took video on a smart phone.

Take in as much info as you can and make best choices for you. 

Some combination of those things will mean that we as investors will have some choices to make.