If it's cash flow and equity is just icing on the cake, then turn key might be the better way to go especially for someone with no experience.

However, appreciation is nice but that would just be icing on the cake for me.

If the property is in the black with the in place rents then great, any increase is icing on the cake.

That equates to a 2.4% cash on cash return.You need to find a place to park that money that will generate you a 7%+ return (with a $100k invested, that is cash flow of minimum $580 per month).The icing on the cake with rental property is principal pay down, appreciation, and tax benefits.You're right though... buying multiple rental properties is much more challenging than the gurus make it seem. 

Random example - I know someone who just purchased an ice fishing cabin as a short term rental.

Like other's have said, make sure you can carry the monthly costs - renting it out is icing.

They converted dining room and one parlor/living room into bedrooms by adding closets. 

It is mostly about Rootstock and similar, but it had a mention of how small local turnkeys could go bad with a link back to one of the BP threads on Morris Invest.https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-new-housing-... for a national article not bad on balance.. and pretty accurate I think most folks on BP understand you cant buy a rental house in cash flow markets and exit within 5 years without taking a capital loss. its a long term play.. let your tenant pay your mortgage off that's been the basis of rental investing since day one.. get those suckers paid for let someone else do it.. positive cash flow is just icing on the cake.

Do you put salt out after snow and ice?

The icing on top is that when we are ready to move out to the suburbs it will not be seen as a liability I wish I didn't have.While househacking is cool, and I'm already a landlord of two turnkey houses in Austin, I do not have the time to rehab a new place or the desire to live in a B+ neighborhood.