with a sales price of around $1M - $1.6M.Here's my question:I could quit my job and support my current budget (family of five with a modest, comfortable lifestyle)  if I could make monthly cash flow (after all expenses / debt service) of $7,000.

Multifamily rents fell in both the Lifestyle (-0.2%) and Renter-by-Necessity (-0.1%) segments.Of the top 30 metro areas surveyed by Yardi Matrix, only six experienced growth in multifamily rent prices: Columbus, New York City, Atlanta, Minneapolis + St.

Arlen $1.7MM would be the lower end, where we could swing it at ~6.5% on a 30 year fixed without any lifestyle changes. 

The culture and lifestyle is just a slower pace and that is not a bad thing....

I would decide where you want to live based on what type of lifestyle you prefer.

Then I build my lifestyle based on whatever is left. 

It was eye opening for me on how to use other people's money to pay for the lifestyle I wanted to live.

Obviously I dont know your expenses and life style. 

Very little overhead (only car insurance) combined with a decent income have prompted me to be wiser with my capital, as I know this transient lifestyle has an expiration date, and when that time comes I would like to have some steady income to show for it.Because I’m not able to be present in a regional market for months at a time, and I will be a relatively absentee investor, I am looking for properties to buy-and-hold.

Many top agents make quite a bit of annual commissions and live a pretty neat lifestyle and take no risk in owning or selling their own properties..