Furnishing is death by 1000 cuts; you're putting a lot of money and a fair amount of risk into a property that you don't own to make $300-500/month per door if everything goes right.

Neither one of us wants to retire this early, just the ability to find something we both really downright love and if that means taking a pay cut we want the means to be able to do that and not have it affect our lives too much. 4.

When you raise outside money you should be able to articulate to LP's your competitive edge.

Quote from @Tiffany Roberts: Not everyone is cut out to be a Landlord.Yes, you may kick yourself in 10 years.

With this you can target areas and cut out the middleman.

For quick math, just cut the rent in half.

I also look widely for HELOCs for my own rental portfolio and am not seeing danger signs there, either, defined by me as lenders cutting off lines or no longer extending lines. 

Pretty cut and dry process.

A property manager who stays current with industry trends, leverages property management software, and adapts quickly to changes can offer a competitive edge.4.

In my experience, inspections are typically about safety, not whether something is up to code (that's what the town building inspectors are for).