Normally a SFR is always going to out perform condos and town homes.

It Continues to outperform all other asset Classes.  

There are times where other asset classes outperform RE.Look at our recent financial crisis.During the crisis, gold spikes up (herding into safety assets).During the beginning of the post-crisis (2010-2012), stock market way outperform the real estate market (at least certain parts of the country).  

If you want to put your money into an arena that will likely outperform nearly every other means of accessible investment, then proceed.

hey Account Closed, i had the same idea once i saw deals were not easy. then again, nothing good is easy. my advice to you is don't go it alone, but try to minimize yourself getting cheated... next piece of advice is this: don't buy just a condo yourself, and then expect to buy investment property. your next property, if it's within 2 years, will be considered an investment property, and you will have to put down 20-25%, otherwise wait 2 years. i don't know your situation and life story, but also, it would be much easier to find lenders going from a 2 family to 1 family, than a 1 family to 2 family. as for stocks, i'm into the long game, so Vanguard ETFs, indexes are the way i go. warren buffett has a bet going on with a hedge fund manager; 1 million dollars to the charity of choice if the s&p 500 outperform the top 3 hedge funds of anyone's choosing over 10 years. someone took him on that bet but warren buffett is winning. 

Any flip "properly assessed" should more than cover the $1000...I believe Josh or Brandon as well as numerous other including Kiyosaki have posts and books on why real estate out performs stocks.

I'm also not confident about the FL potential appreciation in the market, as I think NY is likely to outperform both short and long-term.

If a market is currently far outperforming its pre-recession levels, then I'd think that would be a huge red-flag for any investor. 

Property requires reserves, but you have the potential for appreciation in addition to rents, and that may outperform notes in some markets.  

In general, my returns on these other ventures outperform the cost at which I borrow for my real estate investments, so I'd be losing money if I didn't leverage my real estate.