They have a balloon payment for the principal due in 10 years.

She can set up payments to be paid on the 1st of the month and no one is driving 24/7. 

Here are the numbers:$30k - avg monthly income3 options for rent vs buying$12.5k - avg monthly payment (20% down) on $2mil home$6.25k - avg monthly rent on $2mil home$6.25k - avg monthly payment (71.5% down) on $2mil home3 options for return on capital:7% - avg yearly return on 71.5% down payment (assuming 5% avg yearly appreciation in SD)10% - avg yearly return on from S&P 500>10% - avg yearly return on investment property (just an assumption, but I think you are all here because you beat the stock market)First, the $12.5k monthly is very intimidating and beyond what I should be spending on shelter (a no-go for me)

I use Buildium for tracking rent, fees, leases, and collecting online payments, but I don't use their reports for much, as I end up copying my online banking each year into spreadsheets.I've been using Rental Hero for the last hour and already impressed with it.

though; (1) there are tenants in the house on a two year lease (payments are enough to cover mortgage payments), and (2) the Seller wants the option to buy back the property in two years.

The emergency fund would never be part of our down payment on the next property, just the funds in the brokerage account. 

With $100K in cash, you could leverage this option to make a larger down payment and keep monthly costs manageable.Maximize Rental Income:Are there ways to increase rents on your current properties?

This is eerily similar to the unsecured loans I've made and haven't seen a payment on in over two years.

In my experience that's not actually the case at least in legitimate evictions for non-payment of rent or breach of another part of the lease.  

Find Brandon's videos on YouTube for the "four square" method of analyzing homes and practice.