Wow, a ton of replies! I will write a more detailed response later when I have a chance to read your posts in more detail because I am on my way out the door.
A little background though, I am a realtor and I am working on my first flip (planning to get it on the market in August). I feel I have a good handle on my market, but I know a lot of people in this market who purchase properties out of state as rentals. I plan to support myself short term with flips, however I consider them a job, not nearly as passive (as far as hands on time) as rental properties can be. My retirement goals are rental properties. I plan to buy them outright for cash. I don't want to be over leveraged, worried about the unit sitting empty, market drops etc, and it is still a better ROI to put that cash into a good rental property than have it invested in the stock market or sitting in the bank. Long term I have no desire to personally manage my rentals, as I consider them more of a business and I don't want to hear about their leaky faucet or why they don't have the rent at midnight. I feel that managing rentals personally is somewhat like DIY on flips. Yes, technically possible to save money, but I'd rather plan and budget for someone else to handle it. I also consider a landlord friendly state somewhere that I (that is to say my property management company and I) can very easily evict someone for non-payment.
The 50k is (at this very moment) hypothetical (won't be for long) and I like to hear everyone's ideas because I learn a little from everyone. Even if it is a strategy that doesn't suite me, I learn something that I may utilize later. Ok, I just wrote a novel and I REALLY have to go, lol. Thanks for the replies, keep them coming, and tell me about YOUR market and what your cashflow is on your properties and what you can buy that property for! Hell, I may buy my buy and holds in your backyard instead of mine, lol!
