OR purely an investment?

It is pure gambling at that point at the cost of your money. 

The Ring is nice because they have a battery operated one so thieves can't cut wires.The Nest is nice because the interface for reviewing/saving videos is easier to use in my opinion.We use both.Mike

Cleveland is pure cash flow, but Columbus is a hybrid of appreciation and cash flow. 

I can only imagine how many calls you would get asking to be bring keys to let a tenant in because the battery is dead in a smart lock or some other issue (and I have smart locks on my personal home, just none of my rentals).

If you're using a keypad lock, what if the batteries die and they can't get it in? 

One of my properties is located in CA: I own it free and clear and it generates $800/month in pure cash flow, it is worth $380k.

The only real difference I found was that the lease had to be tighter than a pure rental, and I had to be more concerned that I liked the tenant as a person and not just their income.

I should have used PM software to bill the tenants for rent and utilities like I do for my other tenants.2) I didn't run the numbers as a pure rental.

Cash flow is extremely hard to come by around here (everywhere right now), but these numbers look pretty decent ($250-300 "pure" CF, depending how you cut it), even after accounting for $900/yr. in flood insurance (owner currently pays $800).