@Marc WinterI really appreciate your insight -- specific zip codes of Scranton, Dickson City, and Jessup actually showed up as areas in my analysis whose median prices and rents met or surpassed the 1% rule.

However, our results wildly surpassed expectations; in the first year, our property averaged $3,000 of net profit per month (consistently above 95th percentile in the market).

We should surpass that in under an hour with our membership.

In my past careers I've always found the hands on knowledge far and away surpassed anything I learned in classes.

With internal rates of return on REI being North of 20% in the first year of ownership, paying the penalties/taxes up front far surpasses a) being subject to waiting until "retirement age" to collect, and b) being subjected to future tax rates for said accounts.

I already have 2 units that I purchased 11/21, rehabbed, and self manage which surpass the 1% rule, and yield a 14.5% CoC return so I'm comfortable with the physical work, property management, and associated risk.Now, I'm at the end of my knowledge leash so I'm turning to the pros at my BP home.  

They could surpass 4000 deaths within less than a month of the first death, if current daily death rate stays the same.

Wow, I just realized that my initial post creating this thread has just surpassed the 100 votes mark!

Also in ~13 years (possibly less) it surpassed all of them, how many years to have surpassed the average (I suspect less than 10 years). 

This is presuming someone with existing cash value, but the fact remains, $85,000 growing at 9% WILL catch up to and surpass $100,000 growing at 6%.