But we are very careful with tenant selection and find the creams of the Class C resident pool.I think you're going to be disappointed with paying out more than $50K per unit for anything that only yields $100/month positive cash flow. 

Never speculate when investing, know your numbers, appreciation is icing on the cake...never invest hoping for it.  

The 2nd house would just be icing on the cake even if I sold it for pennies.It seems so simple, I feel like I must be missing something big or others would have already done it... 

Each unit has four large bedrooms, plus dining room, parlor room, etc., and is over 2000 square feet (per unit -- the house is 4000+ total).

Or a handrail fails and a kid falls and busts his head open on stairway ice because your PM knows nothing about how concrete should be finished and let a bad fix slip?

Not ashamed, as intimidation is Nature's way of saying, "Make sure the ice is six inches deep before you go running across the lake."

In addition to tornadoes, we have epic ice storms and it's not that uncommon to do without power for several days.  

Oh, the icing on the cake: there was a fire in the basement! 

Of course, cream or off white is always a nice exterior color too.

The roof is new and looks good on the surface, but all this added weight can't be good, especially in winter with the weight of snow/ice.