I am a great lover of the natural world.

I love real estate investing drama!!

I am not looking for a passionate plea from a cat lover, just the real facts about damage and cleaning issues caused by cats.

I love real estate, but if you don't have the time, abilities, geography, etc. to sniff out real value, you should probably stick to some kind of low-cost index mutual funds or similar. 

With that being said, as a California boy, I noticed some things that these cities have in common, it's a city of charm and micro neighborhoods, almost as if they drew an invisible line to separate the good and bad areas (around Cleveland heights, Lakewood border etc). 

It had a barn on it so my wife thought it was charming.

Black is okay for a prison and white flashes back in your face.Iron has no class, but if you are an iron-lover at least use green paint for fences so the color works well with lawns and other plants.The best doors you can use to make your property look classy is a commercial-style all glass door the same as when going into Target where the door has an aluminum frame and glass from the top to the bottom.Many buildings we purchase has iron gates and we changed them to all glass.

Not that we aren't  animal lovers, but pets will IMO cause extra work when you're cleaning after each guest, and over time, cause more damage to your STR.

I am a total dog lover and have 3 myself (including a French Mastiff / "Hooch", which is basically a pit bull on a lot of steroids, but not bred for fighting, so isn't on insurance radar), but every time we've bought a house we've had to clarify that we did NOT have a Pitty, Rottie, German Shepard/Belgian Malinois, Doberman, or Chow.

After (and if) you have the finances worked out and you decide that you two should buy, then your SO will need to trust you that you've done your homework and that you are the 'risk lover' of the two.