I have thought about this on a couple of occasions but the long holding period compared to SFH flips + my lack of expertise in managing rentals has put me off.

My family had used the general contractor in their homes on many occasions, so before I even called him I could see the type of work that he's done.

She was without electricity for 1-2 days on two different occasions. 

That's not even taking into account the looses the Stock Speculators take.That's when the "Powder Dry" "Keep my feathered numbered for just such an occasion" people come in looking for "Deals" on the cheap.Lets see how the Fannie Large Multi-family loans go--they are supposed to be "Toughened" against this scenario compared to the last crash by added requirements.

Marc, depending on the deal, on a number of occasions I've bought properties with private (hard) money loans, held them for 6-18 months and then refinanced with bank financing.

You'll need it when the occasion to commit into RE investment is right.

I will never forget that in this site on several occasions I heard a member insisting that section 8 rentals needed animal cages.

mountainjoepa:She's already borrowed from her 401k previously on 2 different occasions.

I deal with that in my local market on occasion as well so totally understand.

I normally have it filled in a 1 hour open house, on a rare occasion it takes two one hour open houses.