I have found that multifamily properties tend to cash flow better than the single family homes. 

These areas tend to attract high-quality tenants and provide consistent passive income, which is a great foundation for building your portfolio.If you’d like, I’d be happy to share some insights about these types of markets and why they’re appealing to investors.

To your point, passive real estate investment returns tend to form a bell curve, with a few underperforming, a few overperforming, and most falling in the middle of the bell curve.

Of course, all channels can work.. from seller financing to foreclosures.. but from my 30+ years in real estate, I’ve found focusing on cash flow analysis tends to pay off more reliably.So here’s the big question that might help steer your next steps.. what do you think would make landlording less stressful for you.. a property manager, or maybe a smaller property until you get more comfortable?

Property Managers come in all shapes and sizes, I tend to recommend seeking a medium size local company. 

They tend to cost more to construct then they add in value, they are generally more valuable for a property you are holding as a way to generate more income.

Section 8 would tend to carry higher repair and as a result, additional vacancy.OP’s definition of cash flow is rent minus piti.  

A lot of people tend to mingle these things when they talk about "break even" or "cap rate", but that leads to a lot of confusion.Let's use some real numbers which may be easier to understand. 

Texas tends to favor landlords in these cases, but follow the legal process exactly—any misstep could delay things.As for protecting against retaliation or property damage, installing security cameras (if you haven’t already) to monitor common areas might be worth it.

A lot of local banks tend to have 1-3 year intro periods of lower interest rates for HELOCs, check with some yours.