Are you looking to learn the trade? 

I am personally astonished that so many people are getting fringe degrees and coming out of college with $100k in debt instead of apprenticing in the trades and taking a few online business courses.

Same can be said for trades like welders, electricians, etc.Anyways, I think there'll be some depression in student housing enough to make it a reasonable buy, however, you'll be looking at some over-saturation for a while also. 

I’ve been doing “paper trading” to hone in my skills on assessing notes as well as getting comfortable with a financial calculator. 

There were people in the market putting trades on in 2013 that would profit from a run on the Yen and I think several of those funds no longer exist.

I would suggest you try to get a job in the trades.

Don’t dance around the topic whatsoever.

If you’re not using a GC and hiring out all the separate trades, get multiple quotes, I wouldn’t always go with the cheapest, go with the people that you feel will do the right job.

Many times they will be able to provide references/ recommendations for local contractors/ trades.  

[A significant participation activity is generally a trade or business activity (other than a rental activity) that the taxpayer participates in for more than 100 hours during the year but does not materially participate (under any of the material participation tests other than this test).]