I am 24, fresh out of college, working as an architect with a pretty solid income, so I am comfortable taking a little risk.

It's a duplex for $22k, I haven't been to look at it, it yet but just going off the profile of the property it would probably need another $10-15k of work before I would be comfortable putting tenants in there.

I also have a new baby, so having someone rent a room also wouldn't be something my family would be comfortable with.

But once again, I'm not that comfortable investing this way.

If you are bringing tenants by appointment starting 60 days out, that seems like far too big a window that I would be comfortable with if I were the tenant.

The average gross rents would be around $2100/month comfortably. 

We still feel comfortable with the market and rents here so it wasn't as big of a concern.

If I switched to the other option of paying my loans off in 7.4 years that is a monthly payment of $2446/month (and almost the most I would comfortably like to do).

The 2 states have very different markets so it all depends on what investment will you be comfortable in.

I would do what you are comfortable with and no strategy will work the same for two individuals.