@Geoff Engel depending on what amount of available cash you are starting with and what you ultimately want to achieve will help determine your path.

Property values continue to grow in value, and you can actually live off the rental income.I think it's best to hav all properties paid off by retirement age, since that's when you are going to rely on cash flow for your living expenses.

You do have to purchase at least as much real estate as your net sale if you want to defer all tax.TICS are generally cash deals. 

The law does NOT apply to landlords:With less then 5 rental unitsThat live in one unit of a duplex and rent out the other unitThat rent out rooms in the home they occupySo, landlords can no longer state in their rental ads, "Section 8 not accepted".The reverse is also true, "Section 8 only", cannot be used.We've always recommended screening S8 tenants the same way as cash-paying tenants.Landlords waiving application fees and/or security deposits only for S8 prospects may also be violating Fair Housing.

We are thinking about furnishing one of the Racine duplexes and listing it as a MTR to maximize our investment and get a higher cash flow. 

Purchase price: $105,000 Cash invested: $90,000 Property needed some serious rehab, from trees roots destroying the basement walls, to plumbing, electrical, to roofing, landscape.

Hey, would you say are there opportunities to find decent cash flow properties with say 20% down but also using property management?

the have found a way to solve for all the problems that you brought up and get you quicker to a place that your investment can be cash flowing.  

So either you pay for the repair out of the idle cash in your account, file an insurance claim and use those funds, or rollover/transfer funds from another retirement account to cover the cost. 

I would think the only way Feds come in and lock this down if they can prove that the investments noted in the offering were never made and that the sponsor just pocket the cash and used new cash to pay the old investors.