I've always been looking for a steady cash flow in retirement, something where I'm not depleting my reserves. 

Which is fine but even if I had let say 750k to invest all the down payments will deplete my funds rather quickly in my area do to housing prices...I talked to a local RE agent on BP and he also said it very difficult to do in our area and even if you could find one that the 1% rule would most likely not apply. 

With that being said we also have reservations about depleting to much of our savings. 

I originally went to the hard money lender for this deal since we have depleted our liquid cash for now, and again they were interested with 11% and no down payment or prepayment penalties. 

Right now there's always something going on around LA, especially on commercial and government side so bank accounts keep depleted which is good, money sitting in the bank is not good, simply means it's not working for you.

I have purchased all the units in my portfolio in cash and have pretty much depleted the majority of my savings, but the numbers make sense (average 9 percent CAP rate).  

I could use cash as the 20% down payment but that will deplete my cash reserves or 'safety net'.

Marketing takes time & energy that unfortunately gets depleted at work haha.

So, I think acquiring both real estate and O&G at the same time is a nice way to diversify cashflow since one favors higher cashflow and performance early but depletes over time, while the other starts slow but will be a rocketship over the long term.  

To value a property you need to look at the market analysis and construction approach (building it today less physical depreciation/depletion).