My goal is to eventually become financially independent so I dont have to depend on my job and do the things that I enjoy.

It depends on your end game on how you should go about this.

It depends on what you want to do. 

Depending on what you are targeting you may even be able to work with a bank to have funding up to a specific limit available.Next you need to start networking with agents and other real estate investors in the area you want to invest in.

Depends on the unit and the tenant, but generally for our better tenants we just allow them to go month to month, with or without an increase depending on what the market is doing and whether we want to keep that tenant or not.

It depends on the age, current condition of the property, and quality of tenants.5.  

I understand it will depend on the condition of the house but is there a general rule for that? 

Does it depend?

Agents have differing strategies when listing short sales depending on the sellers situation..

Really depends on what your trying to do.