Quote from @Josh Dickson: Hello all,I've been flirting with real estate for a long time but due to my low earning potential, thus far I have never felt comfortable taking on the risk.

Fully furnished 6 month (maybe as low as it was3-4 months) is much closer to a LTR.  

I also got great value from a very expensive course on how to properly buy & manage residential real estate.Regardless of cost, the ones that offered low value were the ones where the founder wanted to sell education as their main business. 

Cleveland and Dayton can be great markets for high cash flow and low purchase prices, but you need to be careful when navigating the neighborhoods so you're not buying in a D/F class area where no property managers will manage and where you'll never see any positive cash flow.

Had someone in mind who I thought would be great but he wants to add fees that I feel are unfair including $200 admin fee (on top of credit report fees) and mandatory 41.45 monthly for enrollment in their program which includes rental insurance and hvac filters, identity ins, and a few other little things.I've managed to keep costs pretty low for my tenants but realize I've been cheating myself. one is buying. 

I had to redo a bathroom last year in a 2/1 in an occupied duplex I own and I spent $6,004 in labor and materials (10% off at HD/Lowes as a veteran, just didn’t do flooring and left the old vanity, doesn’t include the damage the leak did in the lower unit). 

I bought a small pool of 4 loans for around $25k total, they were low balanced loans with in different situations (BK, FC and performing).

With only requiring 5% down the money needed is very low compared to the Cash On Cash return you could make on a small Multi Family. 

But with inventory being low and you having a guest house, it might stand out.

The vacation homes offered a low 10% down so that was helpful.