I would also look to become more sophisticated with your investment, With 200k, you can contact a lender and possibly get a commercial property that would bring in much more than just 5k a month for you.

The investor wasn't paying attention (and apparently neither was his brother in law) and the investor swung a heavy machinery bucket around while working and knocked his brother in law off the ladder, breaking his neck and killing him. 

Better quality properties are owned by sophisticated capital groups and pubic companies (REITS). 

I have a goal of becoming a sophisticated investor one day.

I am 28 with a history of carpentry, remodelling, and heavy machinery operations.

The complexity limits you to only sophisticated investors, most of whom if they are investing in buy and hold would prefer a set it and forget it approach where the property just does its thing for 30 years until the mortgage is paid off.

I can message you once I get some more detailed quotes back but each job is independent (could be cheaper/more expensive depending on a number of factors e.g. access -can they get machinery down there etc.) 

So long as you stay away from consumer loans, Texas is pretty friendly when it comes to letting businesses and sophisticated parties do what they want. 

Most sellers are not running a sophisticated operation with duplexes where they have professional P&L's & things of that nature.The reality is most of these assets are owned by mom & pop landlords & they are going to vary based on who is operating them.

In fact, most sophisticated investors would argue that having no leverage is the worst way to invest...except for having too much leverage.100% equity in a property means you're not making cash flow as much as you have bought it through all of that equity.