If you want to sell for top dollar (in 2 or 5 or 15 years), that means you want the largest buyer-pool possible, which means presenting it to the market in such a condition that a buyer can get a mortgage on it.

It has a fairly robust economy, with the exception of high tech and medical jobs, with a large shift in the last decade to being a logistics hub for So Cal due to it's central location (the major HWY arteries to the rest of the county run right through the IE) and has some of the largest concentrations of large warehouses rivaled only by New Jersey, the median income is a little below the Cal average by about $10K and about $5K higher than the national average, but, it has been growing.

“At full buildout, the total investment in the site could grow to as much as $100 billion over the next decade, making it one of the largest semiconductor manufacturing sites in the world,” reads Intel’s press release. https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/22/22895447/intel-ohio-chip-fab-manufacturing-cpu-processor-explained The market here is booming and out of state investors are flocking here because of the price to rent ratio. 

As you age you may value the stability more, but I'd try to get the largest pay jumps I could as fast I could.

You seem like a go-getter, so I would recommend incrementally building skills and changing employers every few years to recognize the largest increases in income as you move on to each new employer. 

Thankfully, my largest one will be paid off in a couple years, with the other 2 following shortly in the snowball. 

. - December saw the largest drop in leads, the number of leads decreased 18% throughout our markets. - January experienced a significant increase in demand.

I spoke to invitation homes who is the largest SFR owner in the nation and they own 14 houses here in columbus but they aren't expanding their portfolio. they love Florida. 

I don't have experience with investing in student housing but recently graduated from a large state school and all the houses were 12 month leases, that was the expectation so no one questioned it. 

I followed the Real Estate Cycle and caught the start of the Covid demand for Townhomes and Houses in the Brandon area that had swimming pools for the kids to do something during the shutdown.