For simplicity's sake let's ignore the soft costs like closing, title, and inspection.Scenario 1: You spend your 50k on buying one of them outright, and your gross income is $9000/yr (750*12).

I'm a lazy buyer in the soft markets. 

This is not a bad thing as long as it is a healthy correction and soft landing.  

I recently had a contractor come out to a property in Whittier, CA (1640 sq ft home on a 6400 sq ft lot) that needs a complete gut rehab and below is the soft quote he gave me and everything he'll cover for $170K. 

I've always been interested in tiny house living, or eventually buying an RV to travel, so living in about 1,100 square feet under this house hacking scenario would be a soft step towards towards that. 

I've experimented with both the hard and soft approaches.

And I was also amused by the bottle of Soft Scrub in the bathroom.

I took money out of my pocket and basically put it in my tenants because I was soft.

It's nice to see you have a soft side Mike (: So what happened to the kitten?

My personal thought are that we are in a very good period for property acquisition given the soft market and very low rates.