Hi BiggerPockets community,We are a married couple based in the California Bay Area, both working as software engineers with a combined income of close to a Million USD.

This combined with my new boss giving me additional responsibilities (how dare he...) and the support of my wife prompted me to take the plunge. 

However, poor operations, poor financial assumptions, poor finance structure, or a combination thereof can quickly turn a great deal on paper from hero to zero.

You can combine a bunch full-time of investors together and would be hard-pressed to have a repeat of your story with a car crash.

With the current interest rates vs the extremely low rates we had for the last decade, combined with higher house prices, cash flow is going to be less than it was 5 years ago. 

If you're going to owner occupy and and want to benefit from some rental income then I'd go for it, but if you're looking for some combination of appreciation and cash flow there are better places to put your cash.

Since the assumable financing and seller carry combined could put a strain on your monthly expenses, it’s important to model different scenarios for vacancy, maintenance, and management costs.

The list is a combination of private and public data. 

Higher returns means some combination of higher risk, effort or barrier to entry.

I never made more than $100k in a year working until my last year of employment, and still managed to retire at 50 with a lifetime pension from a combination of military and public service.