If you do cleaning yourself, you save on the largest expenses but also limit your ability to scale.

It’s nice to have a million dollar property I didn’t pay for as part of my retirement plan… ;)Makes sense.

I love being able to turn personal properties into rentals as they required a small amount of cash for a large asset to have someone else paying off.It really depends on your long term goal, but ours is to use these "retirements baskets" into reasons that early retirement at 44 is successful! 

If you are headed into retirement, my way would still be way safer than your plan.

Had I done that 10 months earlier, I would have saved tens of thousands of dollars, despite the flight costs.

If wetlands are involved the process can get pretty time consuming, and costly but with your 3 - 15 acre lots you may be able to avoid impacting them which will save you a lot of time and money.I hope this isn't too confusing.

They also likely save you time.You can certainly still buy in DFW for $400K and maybe as low as $250K depending on where you want to buy. 

I've included an example below to help illustrate this.So different lenders have different rates (which do vary even for DSCR loans) but these are factors they all consider.See example below:DSCR < 1Principal + Interest = $1,700Taxes = $350, Insurance = $100, Association Dues = $50Total PITIA = $2200Rent = $2000DSCR = Rent/PITIA = 2000/2200 = 0.91Since the DSCR is 0.91, we know the expenses are greater than the income of the property.DSCR >1Principal + Interest = $1,500Taxes = $250, Insurance = $100, Association Dues = $25Total PITIA = $1875 Rent = $2300DSCR = Rent/PITIA = 2300/1875 = 1.23If a purchase, you also generally need reserves / savings to show you have 3-6 month payments of PITIA (principal / interest (mortgage payment), property taxes and insurance and HOA (if applicable).

I am not sure about what you are reflecting in the cleaning number but for me 1) it is shocking what cleaners charge but it is not where you want to try to save money for quality 2) it is a pass through, the guest pays it. $250 per turn would be for larger unit and very good job.  

Sometimes they will contact me directly when they are getting closer to retirement and decide to downsize some of their holdings.