Or you can look at it this way - you've learned nothing and still have money sitting in your checking account wasting away and I just put another $3500 against my mortgage yesterday without breaking a sweat or taking anything out of savings.

It's bad, very bad, math.If you buy a property with all cash for $200k, and that allows you to have PCF of $1000/month, that means it will take you 200 months before you break even. 

Let me break it down further to clarify the mechanics of the plan.Balancing Rental Prices with Financial Sustainability:The goal to drive down rental prices isn’t an immediate or universal adjustment—it’s a phased approach that leverages time, scale, and operational efficiency.

Ideally want to break even or cash flow with the 3 tenants.

But the other part of me is pointing out that I would have to come up with large downpayments for properties that would be break even or even lose money.

All things being equal on the asset side, the operation and systems put in place will make or break the performance of the investment but at this point that has almost nothing to do with real estate. 

From a transactional cost standpoint alone, the fees on the way in and on the way out require significant appreciation to break even.

My goal while I'm working is to always report a break even or loss until I retire.

You will need to see what your local laws state but for me I give a 14/30 day notice which is 14 days to stop breaking the lease or be out in 30. 

I do land acq. and construction loans everyday so if you have any q's when you get close to breaking-ground, let me know!