I would take a slightly lower return for a more passive investment.  3) the amount of riskI could take the money you would use to pay down your mortgage and place it in something very passive and somewhat low risk such as the S&P 500 long term (14 years is long term) and achieve far greater return (historically probably double) than what you will save by paying down a conventional home loan. 

There are lots of baltimore area members here to help you achieve it.

I have dreams of owning rental properties and wish to learn lots about achieving this dream.

I'd love to set up a conference call with you and our team to assess your goals and put together a strategic plan to achieve them.

I'm looking to slowly accumulate rental properties over the years to achieve a sizable cashflow and earn my time back on my own terms.

It's completely feasible to achieve enormous levels of success investing out of state - but keep in mind that when you get involved in a deal that is not local you're losing some control, and your visibility & oversight of the deal is dramatically diminished.Unless you're buying a turn key or getting into a PPM or some other commercial investment vehicle with a group that is managed and regulated, you may want to consider keeping it local until you've gained the experience and knowledge, and developed the out of state relationships necessary to be successful from a distance. 

I hope to, someday, be able to achieve financial freedom through real estate.

If my friend achieved that with wolf hybrids, your tenant can do that with their lab!

Just want to make sure they will support you in achieving your goals. - Dave 

For a generator to be capable of even just sustaining itself (not providing power to any external elements), it would have to achieve perpetual motion.