@John Culotta Really appreciate you for saying that. Amazon is slipping as a way to make consistent money for the smaller guys. Theres a way to make money but not just finding random products. You have to work in a niche for 3-5 years. Congrats on paying the home off! Really big deal there...
John I wanna be careful recommending anything specific. In my opinion i really thing its up to the individual and access to opportunity. You can limit your risk by going single family and probably best place to start(prob not in cali). Go somewhere that there is population over 10k and stabilized population growth. Doesn't matter if it increases or decreases for me. See if there is little to no inventory on the market. Best thing to do is set the parameters on Zillow like rental: under $700/month and move the map all the way around the USA! Find a underserved market then call the local property management/ agents there to see if there is a real demand for the type of rental units you want to invest.
Other hand you could find someone that is building new product and partner with them on their next build like i did and skip 10 years.
Really up to you and how you choose to think about it! Either way its moving forward so JUST DO IT!