You mentioned some crime stats, there is crime everywhere it fluctuates in all areas every year some years more, some years less, I do not know if a single cit yin the country that is immune to crime.Investing is risky no matter SFR, multi-family, commercial, flipping, holding, stock, bonds, IRA - this is the pure nature of investing it is a risk. 

I would ideally getting a better rate of return on an investment property than I would by just market fluctuation on my 401k. 

Prices fluctuate, you can find them from 150k to 215k in the fredericksburg area.

If you are in it for the long haul, you don't need to worry so much about short term market fluctuations. 

Since I am from the midwest, a lot of things are new to me out here, like the high property cost and the fluctuations in the market.

We have savings accounts (personal for unexpected expenses such as vehicle repairs and such, and property savings for heaters, A/C, water heaters, etc) to catch the fluctuations, but don't want to touch the property savings to invest, lest we be caught short.

We're a strong market and have weathered the past economic fluctuations with ease.Our economy is strongly supported by defense and science funding and so we were isolated from the rampant foreclosures as the real estate bubble burst.We have had a housing boom and I think our supply was oversaturated in the outlying areas but we're rebounding.  

If you got a blanket mortgage on it for $300k, you would have 60% of your capital back, with a huge buffer for market fluctuations and redundancy with 5 doors paying a single note.

I'm just getting into this process, but I have noticed that taxes on similarly sized properties do seem to fluctuate.

Bouncing from 3.2% to 3.4% with what looks like some seasonal fluctuations..