You can either bridge that gap by piling up more money or living with less comfort. 

But if you’re looking for a more stable, family-friendly environment with lower costs and a focus on LTRs, Texas could be a better fit.Since you have young kids, I’d dig deeper into school districts and neighborhoods in both states—family life can really shape where you’ll feel at home.

So, it's still a viable way of investing, but does not have the same scale of success in today's economic environment in higher appreciation markets.

The diligence, patience, and comfort will give you the confidence to invest.

It is a matter of getting out of your comfort zone a little bit but not so much that you will burn out or lose sleep.

Risk/reward was not something I was comfortable with after looking at numbers and a few things not grandfathered in if a tenant left. 

I think the before vs after pictures really speak primarily to your experience and ability to execute a project so it can help lenders gain comfort with future projects and allow you demonstrate what level of detail you except out of your contractors.

Covering this with my salary is relatively comfortable.  

- This ties into the previous question a bit, but we have around $70k that we could be comfortable deploying into this if we find the right deal. 

I was not comfortable with the market and interest rate conditions, so I elected to hold off.