One consideration as you are working on locating private lenders, is that IRA, 401(k), and other retirement accounts can be used in many cases to make private money loans.

I'm sure there are great, stable areas in Columbus but I'm not convinced the appreciation has been as strong as most would lead you to believe.I don't know much about Cincinnati, but one glance at the median list price over the past 5 years (attached below) would be enough for me to write it off as not appreciating.I'm personally partial to Detroit and that's where I invest and do a lot of business with other folks as well.

A general rule of thumb though (not a hard rule) is that if a market has a prolonged history of vacation rentals such as towns whose commerce is very dependent on tourism like beach or mountain towns, then there is a good chance than those towns have established their airBNB regulations decades ago and are likely stable.

In this type of area having just 1 or 2 properties is ok because your tenant base is higher end and more stable. 

Today, that building generates enough passive income to cover his annual retirement contributions.You mentioned taking the 10% penalty, which I’d only recommend as a last resort.

This alone is a significant factor in premiums going up (even when rates remain stable).  

Lesson learned is to pay more to get into a nicer area (B neighborhood) with more reliable tenants to avoid the vacancy risks, but again, if we can just get the 2nd unit filled we will finally have stable cash flow.

.• Retirement communities• Syndicates (from initial explorations, little transparency from providers, little oversight - almost leap of faith and trust in provider?)

I encourage everyone to check out the podcast Tanisha (CEO of Tardus ) did with rent to retirement, you can view it on the rent to retirement page. 

So, I went hunting.Huntsville, Alabama, caught my attention because it’s a highly educated city with growing industries and a stable, diverse economy, as well as a really high quality of life compared to the surrounding areas.