In NY, NJ, CT, PA, MA the security deposit is regulated, as well as how much you can collect at lease signing. 

I just got something small and well within my means - refinanced when rates got low and now it's a decent little cash flowing rental 

Southlake probably never was, Frisco if you bought 10+ years ago probably has done well. 

RentRedi’s syndication marketing helped us secure a great tenant in under four days, including employment and landlord verification, as well as criminal, credit, banking, and eviction history checks.

I am not a BP pro right at the moment and I'm not able to see the older calculations as well.

This property has a ton of deferred maintenance but I'm purchasing it well below market value and I have a decent budget. 

Make sure they are "investor friendly" and well connected in the neighborhood.

They specialize in multifamily as well!

I got started by moving from Portland OR to Columbus Ohio and started full time real estate investing here and started with house hacking/multifamily as well. 

But ya have to make some educated prognostications in life.Add this to the information your processing - What your talking about doing is eliminating around $4000 or interest expense (which is deductible anyway so really could be a real impact of eliminating $2800 or so) of debt in exchange for paying over $10K in capital gains tax (don't forget possible state gains tax as well).