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.

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

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.

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

Why do you put a window that low in the bathroom? 

Margins seem low and the risk seems high.

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