In the interim you are going to be stuck with a home in a stagnant neighborhood that will struggle to absorb operating expenses.

When I wasn't in the position of buying rentals I was just absorbing information.

Before we made this step mandatory in our projects, we had to either absorb or pass along up to $20K+ in changes to sitework & foundation costs.

But overall, I think newer built houses will absorb the abuse better. 

From what I've gathered the properties will not begin to cash flow significantly better, you are in a market that cannot easily absorb unexpected capital expenditures (greater risk to you in the future) and the principal paydown is pretty meaningless for a while.

Yash,Underestimate the incomeOverestimate the expensesWay too many investors get caught up in the "highlight" prospects of a deal and don't do any "risk analysis" so to speak.Start from the worst case scenario and if you can absorb such a scenario.Then consider the upsides.It's a good way to go about underwriting deals.Wishing you much success

Cap ex is not easy to absorb and the "excel pro-forma"  rarely materializes as reality. 

Typically even if you run into reasonable unforeseen expenses,  those added costs can be absorbed by a rental asset over time whereas the same can't be said about a strictly for-sale area.

It makes the towels less absorbent and they hold onto stains much more readily.

I would suggest absorbing as much of this content as you can until you can answer that question by yourself.