20k/year with a masters degree isn't an ideal situation.

Too many "tricks" are required to make them do what you want, which is give you the ability to see not only categories of transactions, but also unit and property assignment.

However, we have a dream of living in the US to enhance our ability to reach financial independence sooner while providing a better life for our future family.

Also ironic that while although my instructor was well-educated and informative, she quickly mentioned how she has a degree in marketing.....interesting.  

I am fifty-eight years of age, have a bachelors  ( 4- year ) degree in Business Administration ( General Management ) from Western Kentucky University ,  Bowling Green , Kentucky .

We're in a fairly high-end area, though not to the degree of Orange County, and it's my experience that the custom builders can make as much or more by working with a client, with no risk, as opposed to splitting profit with an investor.

Jeff also now has the ability to sell his property (or any portion of it) without recording a deed in the county records, because he can sell his LLC.In Oklahoma, LLC's are cheap to form ($100), cheap to keep up ($25 a year) and don't require annual meetings like a corporation.  

And please keep in mind that your ability to sleep well at night and your quality of life might be worth more than making a few extra bucks.   

To be honest, I don't necessarily see myself going full-time into REI anytime soon (I feel that would be counter-intuitive to the time I've invested in a non-REI related degree), but I am set on doing it part-time (the 'ole 9-5 job + REI life) once I graduate.

With full service turnkey, the quality of the prop vetting and rehab directly impact's their ability to easily tenant and manage the property, so they are internally incentivized to do good work in a timely manner.