I am also looking at pure rentals in any suburbs that have good economic outlooks.My longer term horizons include Texas, that seems to be the hot new thing nowadays.

We are both in our 40s and I have a steady regular job so no real retirement on the horizon.  

If you're looking to leverage and have a longer investment time horizon going 5% with PMI and saving the difference for a second property would be ideal because you have two assets rather than just the one.

I have a 10+ year time horizon that focuses mainly on cash flow, but net worth growth is always a metric I track and set a goal for.  

This is an addition to the costs you run into from unfilled vacancies as well as ongoing repair costs- which may vary wildly- for instance, a new window will be a lot cheaper than replacing an entire kitchen floor.All of these topics have been covered by other posters- so to add something new- I would say that you should try and factor in property market growth and the likely property appreciation you’ll receive over your horizon, whether that is 5 years, 10 years, etc.

How much money is being invested, what's the time horizon, what assets is the 401k investing in, what's the return of those assets during the time period, what type of real estate, what market is the real estate in, are you buying houses or investing in syndications, etc etc etcYou can build models.

But as with anything-what goes up will have to go down..except this time-I do not forsee a 2008 on the horizon.

But totally agree with your perspective about opening my search horizon to have more access to talent and services.

You could look in upstate NY like Syracuse or Buffalo where things are much cheaper But if you're going outside of your home town then you might as well broaden your horizons and look at other out of state markets.

I'm just planning ahead with the cash I do have for the next deal and I have rental separated from personal income.My thinking has changed from $1,000s to $10,000s now that I've started investing (Bigger Horizons)I agree it is hard sometimes but you've gotta think ahead in 10 years how life will be.