Had I only known then how easy it was to eat my cake and have it too.As for schools, this is exactly why I donated pencils that said "I Buy Houses" to grade schools in the areas I wanted to buy in.

Latest potential vacancy has been a piece of cake in showings because our tenant is clean, doesn't have too much furniture and did a good job of decorating.

I think @Noel Felix III wants to have his cake and eat it too. 

If buy and hold is anywhere on your road map then that's a great way to get familiar with the ins and outs of being a landlord, and it saves you commute time when issues pop up, and, extra icing on the cake, you can use FHA financing for up to 4 unit properties.

Anything else is icing on the cake. 

This is how I started as finding cash flowing in my area is very hard and I am after passive income stream so cashflow was important, any appreciation is icing on the cake.

You should be doing owner financing as icing on the cake or because you can't do the deal otherwise, but either way you only do the deal if it makes sense in the first place.

Collecting late fees for late paying tenants to me is like frosting on the cake.

FHA isn't going to let you have your cake and eat it to.

Sounds like you want to have your cake and eat it too.