I encourage everyone to check out the podcast Tanisha (CEO of Tardus ) did with rent to retirement, you can view it on the rent to retirement page. 

It’s worth researching to see if this might be a good fit for your situation.Lease Structure and Clauses: Work with an attorney to draft a lease with strong clauses for late fees, maintenance responsibilities, and other terms to protect your interests.Target Stable Tenant Profiles: While no tenant is risk-free, targeting tenant pools that historically have more stability (e.g., retirees, dual-income households, or tenants relocating for work) may reduce risk.Stay Up to Date on Landlord-Tenant Laws: Understanding your rights and obligations can help you navigate issues more effectively if they arise.That said, if the potential risks are keeping you up at night and the financial pressure of an eviction would be too much, selling may still be the best option for peace of mind.

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.

I'm taking a break now only because I'm retiring. 

Focus on locations with strong population growth, growing or stable job markets, low operating costs, and no rent control restrictions.

.$500k annual income is alot for your average folk, but it's not "retire me" income at all.

We love Duluth and the north shore and hope to "retire" there in the next handful of years.       

In this type of area having just 1 or 2 properties is ok because your tenant base is higher end and more stable. 

Lesson learned is to pay more to get into a nicer area (B neighborhood) with more reliable tenants to avoid the vacancy risks, but again, if we can just get the 2nd unit filled we will finally have stable cash flow.

Hope this helps for now, and great to hear you are paying attention to your hard earned retirement funds with such care and discipline!