Any market can work, you should consider a market that you have some 'competitive advantage' compared to others.Think of an area that you grew up in, went to school, visit friends / family, visit often, best of luck.Also, do you have any experience in rentals / short-term rentals.Air-bnb's hosts have become 'commercialized'.You will not out-perform a host who has years of experience, does this 24/7 and has a team of support.Best of luck.

I have gotten as far as looking up storage units on loop net and comparing cap rate.

Understand the fees involved and calculate the total cost for an entire year of management so you can compare the different managers.

Probably not, but I wanted to create a linear path to compare selling vs. renting. 

This is what I am seeing in my market where a large percentage of home sales are estate sales with properties that are outdated significantly (lower purchase price) but comps for those homes haven't dropped compared to what they were selling at 2 years ago.

Is it better to do a smaller down payment compared to 20% to save on interest rates and then take a lump sum to recast the mortgage?

Here are a few considerations to help you decide between a 4-plex and a duplex:Cash Flow and Returns: A 4-plex typically generates more rental income compared to a duplex, potentially offering better cash flow and returns.

We recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

We recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

Compare the risk reward between the 3 scenarios.