Total users double every year is the math on that.

This means the seller-financed loan becomes secondary to the new mortgage, which satisfies the lender's LTV requirements.How It Works:Lender issues a new 75% LTV loan based on the property value.The seller retains a subordinate lien for the remaining balance until paid off.No additional cash is required from you.”

$500,000 after taxes is likely close to $325,000(maybe more or maybe less).Assuming cash-flow from rentals is offset by depreciation, you would need $325,000 of annual cash-flow from the rentals.If you can get $200 / door / monthYou would need 135 doorsYou can work on this type of math to figure out how much rentals you need.Be mindful that rentals require some type of work.

This simply is because both ideas are just math operations and not real things in and of themselves.

Today's math is 10-15% down, and re-house hack every 3-7 years.In italics, this is a fine goal but be realistic.

Do the math on how much more you can rent for after a remodel an how long that will take to pay off the upgrades. 

although we bought about 6 years ago or so for 270 put 100k into it so you can do the math  no debt .. hoa 400  we pay utls. 200 or so.. so 600 a month out of the 3500.. tax's about 1500 a year ( got to love Vegas taxs ) value today right at 600k.. so lets say we net about 33k a year on 370k cash .. so not bad little under 10% COC with an outstanding tenant one of the best I have ever had.PS given tenant quality we manage ourselves.. 

In a dream world - the comprehensive solution does all this: *task management and sequencing where you can drop a property into a sequence ie day 1 call, day 2 mailer (have it automatically mail out something like a postcard) day 3 etc etc etc*project management outside of the outreach sequences for what's next in the process ie schedule inspection, send the contract, etc etc*ability to have multiple users drive around and if you see a property you can tag an address and add it into a marketing sequence, and also track the streets you've hit so you're not wasting time driving by the same houses more than once *dialer (ability to parallel dial numerous numbers simultaneously to make cold calling more efficient - Ive used tools like orum and kixie in other industries, and when you receive a pickup, the other calls are dropped) *skip tracing/data provider *website landing page for converting online visitors to leads*electronic signature/docusign*secondary branded landing site on different URL for blasts for deal disposition to your buyer listWhat am I missing? 

I am a first-time investor and am looking for a location (hopefully) where I can get decent appreciation while not having the risk of crazy negative cash flow (like one sees when doing the math on opportunities in Seattle, for example).

LOL,  math doesn't make sense.