Quote from @Omar Samaniego: Quote from @Bonnie Low: I've used Avail in the past, but switched to Baselane last year.

Until 2018, when it was closed due to low revenue and high maintenance costs 2.

I'd hate for a temporary dip in the quality of the tenant pool to be giving my landlord "spidey sense" false alarms on account of taking an extra month or two to fill a unit.

I see that real estate agents and brokers are too negative on sub to deals……investors looking for low interest rates and or low down payments are too positive on the same.As I stated the reality is somewhere in between, depending on individual circumstances.  

@Cole Bossert I think @Sarah Kensinger and others have touched on the biggest qualities, especially communication.

Make sure you buy it low enough to make it worth the trouble.

A low maintenance condo rentable to good tenants sounds like a good starting point to me.I’m 56 and reasonably setup for retirement, so real estate is a stabilizing diversifier for me.

Even with buying down the rate, I would not expect to get better than low 6's in the best of scenarios.

I would assume the % of man made fires caused by Arson is pretty darn low though.

I doubt he'll be able to quality for a loan (VA) with just his income.