My main suggestion would be to make sure to look around and confirm that the issue is isolated to just that area.  

If you don't have a calculator or alternatives (or goals/criteria), I'd recommend starting with them first (and not rushing into a decision).There are millions of properties and investment alternatives and isolating your search to one is very limiting.  

You are thinking of it in isolation.

That's why these calculations are important.Michael Evans I believe you are accidentally illustrating the point in the danger of isolating a favorite calculation and basing a purchase decision off of that vs taking a few sides and comparing them.

My manager also continued by saying that "that amount did not cover the loss" and that they had "considered deducting $600 from my check".I would like to supplement this explanation by also stating that I leased 23 apartments last month, more than any other agent in the region, and the 22 other leases either did not qualify for the special or met the special requirements, so this was an isolated problem.

Have an independent LLC for each property so they are all isolated from the others.

I also looked at what my future earnings potential with my corporate job plus the real estate I owned then my earnings potential if I solely focused on real estate.

Your personal estate is well isolated from the entities.Again, this is how rich legislators wrote the law - to protect themselves and their personal possessions / estate from the risks and liabilities incurred by the business entities.A side benefit is that you are -NOT- self-employed!

The best way IMO to combine ALL sources of profit into a single analytical framework is to project out the financials and planned exit and calculate the IRR ... this is still far from fool proof, but at least it allows you to look at BOTH cash flow AND appreciation, and other factors in combination, and not in isolation and fixed forever in time as with CoC, CAP rates, etc.Also, both cash flow and appreciation are not steady, and not linear ... they both go up and down over the short term in unpredictable ways.

In cold belt states like OH you have more isolated pockets of growth and then lots of dead areas or declining areas where people are migrating away.The baby boomers and retirees are leaving cold belt states in droves.