I've come across a couple of properties that seem to be vacant and through some internet sleuthing I've determined that the owner is absent.

Obviously 6 months later you'll have to endure some interest rate risk as the market can change but sometimes this strategy is worth the risk, all things considered.Let me know if that helps. 

I have always been interested in real estate investment, but have always been scared of enduring the hard times with no consistent cash flow. 

Downside: It cuts into your bottom line increasing expenses, having to endure ridiculous rules that may not make sense to you or your tenants, restrictions on the number of units the HOA allow to be non-owner occupied (The HOA can decide to limit, reduce or expand the number of non-owner occupied units at any time).

That is a difficult thing to endure.

Real estate investment is a great supplement to teaching, and if you love teaching, which I'm sure you do, the income that you receive from real estate investing can relieve you from the financial burdens that unfortunately those of us in the teaching profession now I have to endure.

So that you CAN achieve as much as that one dude who had to endure grueling periods of trial and error and pain with 1/10th the pain and effort. 

My last deal, I had to do some super sleuthing since two weeks of emailing and calling the listing agent and the principal broker netted nada.    

Something real that I can pass on to my children and ensure that they, or their future children, will never have to endure the hardships of my childhood.

Buying a condo, in my opinion, requires just as much sleuthing of the HOA as the condo itself.