College rentals are great, but more time intensive and usually better managed by more experienced landlords because college kids break more stuff and don't know how to work a lot of things.

My kids play all sports and baseball is the most humbling.

(Especially during an intense work-out or something!)

run the numbers if you snow ball one at a time and see how that plays out once it free and clear if you get there quicker ?

You want to develop a plan for how to handle that in advance.In our book, payment history & longevity play a “first factor” in how we respond.  

Location plays a big part in it.

I’m considering it more and more but I feel I should stick with the area I’m familiar with and play it safe for my first rental.

Despite my attempts to resolve these issues, Justin Banks, the property manager, tried to manipulate me into feeling guilty by playing the single dad card, relating to the tenant.

@Mike Liu there's always a tradeoff between risk & reward.If you want higher cashflow, you'll need to get into riskier investments.STRs are riskier than LTR due to: saturation, changing local government regulations, more intense time required, etc..Regarding LTR higher cashflow:If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.So, when investing in areas they don’t really know, investors should research the different property Class submarkets.

Usually you just have to play around with the HUD a little bit to have it work out if necessary.