Those that cannot weather the storm get wiped out.Having cashflow positive properties provides a margin of safety you just do not have with negative cashflow.Why are you focused on buying in your backyard? 

With an owner-occupied loan, you can buy a house with 0-5% down and get 30-year fixed rate financing so you're not dealing with adjustable rates if rates go back up and not dealing with a balloon payment in 6-24 months which is plenty of time for an experienced investor but not a whole lot if you're new. 

Where I’m at there are places you can buy with20k down.

All else being equal, lower mortgage rates reduce the cost of ownership and, thereby, allow more people to afford to buy.

As long as the lender can finance in the state that you want to buy in, then work with them.

- The percentage difference is the percentage the taxes will go up after you buy it.What do you mean by the property has HVAC AND boilers? 

Quote from @Debra Gross: Getting ready to buy my first property all cash in my LLC.

One golden rule I follow,if it takes a long time to fix/replace when it breaks, don't buy a cheap one.Imagine, this thing breaks in the middle of your peak season and the people who can come out to rebuild are 2 weeks out....It takes at least a day or two to build something like this even if you are super skilled.

Not realizing I was only getting a few hundred a month from it and from a cash-on-cash perspective I'd have been better off buying TBills with the click of a button instead of all the hard work, stress, time, and planning I put into it. 

My wife and I also invest in STRs and I spend a lot of time working over the best place to buy our next property.I've been looking at Packwood recently for a client.