This is critical mass. 

This is critical to your continued success if you are new to investing. 

Happy Wife Happy LIfe and no one except some people on BP would be critical of your owning a free and clear asset.. thats all I personally am focused on these days as i head into the twilight of my career NO debt .. and cash flow..

I am always open to advice and constructive criticism.

Tish,Thanks for your response - I discussed only making the house a 3/2 and fixing up that bathroom but my wife thought the on-suite master was critical, part of me agrees Was considering painting the cabinets as well.

You need, however, to learn how to structure these deals properly, use a qualified syndication attorney so you don't get sideways with the SEC or your state regulators, and to build a network of investors.Building the network of investors first is the critical step.  

Partnerships, good agents and property managers are critical when purchasing across borders. 

With the coming of online vacation rental sites like Airbnb, true occupancy is not disclosed, and we're left to guess.The result of guessing is some level of inaccuracy (mild to wild), which brings criticism to market pricing / availability tools.

Critics of my style will scream, "You can't scale!!!" 

I used to think having a long term lease (12 months) in place was critical.