I find condos/townhomes to be easier to manage out of state because the HOA handles a lot of the maintenance, just be aware of condo fees and find a place that is reasonable like $300-400/mo or less if you are lucky.

If I had to leave a takeaway from this post before getting too far in it would be that whatever goals are had you have, we have these goals for a reason and typically it does not go exactly as planned but even if it doesn't go as planned, we can pick up where we left off and give it a fresh start.

The rental should be paid off in about 3 years.

Interesting, I was aware of how they work in my state, but not about these kind of differences. 

We've thought about trying to sell off each unit.

Or not topping off reservoirs in advance of a known annual heightened fire risk season. 

They make their money off of real estate agents, but real estate agents are the worst people to make money off because they are highly unreliable and in and out of the business when the market changes.Their target should be the consumer with higher levels that they can subscribe too for data, since Zillow is linked to the MLS now which makes their data somewhere more reliable.

Finding great off-market deals can feel like a needle-in-a-haystack challenge.

I obviously want to get the best tax benefits and write off the expenses for the house and repairs I have done.

Purchase price: $230,000 Cash invested: $283,550 Sale price: $283,500 Purchased off market. $25,000 Rehab. $20,000 profit after realtor commission.