One of my favorite quotes from Jim is “Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines practiced every day”.  

Working for a property manager, managing VRBO’s, relocation for retirees or possibly estate sales and clean-outs would provide income while putting yourself in a place to find really good deals.These sound like dead ends to some but becoming reputable and available is a great way to generate good deals.

I'm just wondering, you could also relocate to other parts of the Midwest & invest + house hack there as well.

Look for a Broker who has Relocation leads.

Find Brandon's videos on YouTube for the "four square" method of analyzing homes and practice.

I want to purchase a property within 6-8 months of finishing my loan payments and ideally I would use this year to continue learning and crunching numbers on properties that I find for practice, but have no idea what my budget should be because I have no idea what loan amount I might get approved for...I would like to do FHA for the 3.5% down and looking at qualifications I should be able to qualify, but I feel like until I actually sit down and see what exactly I can get approved for, there is a huge gap in my planning...

@Marko Kustudia To be compliant with NV laws, you are supposed to have a contact person within same county or 60 miles:  NRS 118A.260  Disclosure of names and addresses of managers and owners; emergency telephone number; service of process.Regardless of that, having a property manager for long-distance ownership is really a business best practice anyway.

In general, rental real estate is considered passive.There are some exceptions.You normally hire a professional because he/she is knowledgeable in the field that they practice in.

I had 2 tenants sign a lease/ rent when they still had a month left on their old apartments and they just took the hit because they wanted it.There are always people getting divorced, relocating or leaving the nest.

I'm unfamiliar with their practice.