The problem with areas of heavy saturation is that it's too late and these areas are depressed pricewise due to the competition. 

And like any investment vehicle, low risk equals low yield.Currently to break even with rent covering just the mortgage payment takes about a 35-40% down payment on an investor loans.

Require renters insurance naming you as additional insured at the time of walk-thru, require valid auto insurance for all vehicles to be garaged on your property, video all walk-thrus, require only the paying adult or adults to be named on the lease, do not require all adults living in the premises to be on the lease.

I should have been buying houses like they were candy bars when they were super cheap, and then worried about heavy rehabs and slowing down when prices (and rates) rose.

@Megan Fitzgerald  Another way is to help limit adults is to limit the number of vehicles especially if this is going to create a neighborhood problem if you have 5/6 vehicles. 

New roof, gutters, wood rot repair, new flooring, heavy cleaning, and paint.

He would find the property, do the renovation, all the heavy lifting on that side of things. 

If you are choosing REI as your vehicle, then it is likely that you want more control rather than just stock investing.

With 5 units on 4 properties, it sounds like you're single family heavy buying highly distressed properties that take time to renovate. 

We tend to do super-heavy rehabs which usually require roofs, wiring, A/C, etc, so we usually walk the property with one of our contractors.