If you are having a hard time finding sufficient rent comps 15 mins outside of the downtown area of a smaller, secondary / tertiary market (correct me if I am wrong), should you be calling agents / brokers to better understand the dynamics of the neighborhood?

I try to be self sufficient and largely spoon feed them the properties I am interested in.  

In some instances, doing your own staging is a good add on (if you are doing enough quantity each year And have the ability to store it.

Tons and tons and tons of new construction, and you are fighting massive quantities of discount hotels.

IMO, it's not wise to invest in real estate without sufficient reserves. 

It's all about creating and maintaining those relationships and it truly is quantity of quality.

You could also just invest those proceeds in securities, as you mentioned, but you may not get sufficient cash flow from those to cover your mortgage payments.

Be prepared to carry a negative cash flow for some time until rents rise sufficiently to cover the neg.

We have THE reputation of getting the highest quantity and quality of organic motivated leads.Cash buyers keep contacting me through our motivated seller website asking if we have properties.The best way to get buyers (and sellers), is to establish yourself as the authority in your space.

The main hurdles are having the sufficient capacity with utilities (water, sewer, electric) off-street parking, appropriate setbacks, and fire mitigation (if you have 3 units you are likely going to be required to have one of them sprinkled).