The market appreciates 3% per year.If you pay cash for one house and rent it for $1,500, after five years, you'll have earned $90,000 in rent income and gained $34,000 in appreciation. 

It is 'lost' when investing within a retirement account.2) If the extra rate of return is about 1%-2% it may make sense given all the extra worth involved such as setting up and paying for the SDIRA account and then potentially having to file certain tax forms if your income is subject to Unrelated Business Taxable Income.

Hopefully your agent can help you out - this is where they earn their money.

But my experience is like yours 90% of guests are reasonable, and the other 10% cost me an extra $100-200 for the month stay.

I could sell the property and net $170k and then reinvest that and earn 9% interest annually via lending hard money. 

Whether I find a new tenant or not, the departing tenant moves out after 30 days and is treated like an ordinary termination, which means I process their deposit like normal and they can earn a good landlord reference.2.

If you are really worried about liability, get a bunch of insurance policies like an extra umbrella or beefed-up property insurance. 

The only issue w/the keypads is then you may have extra maintenance calls. 

Sometimes it's better to only put the minimum down because the break isn't significant enough when you put down the extra 5%. 

Having the cash means you can balance a higher amount down to make sure you earn the cash flow you want monthly, but also leave some around for more.