Landlords face increasingly stronger headwind from the public and from the media and 8 out of 10 times I see a desaster in the evening news it involves an OOS owner.

I would go for an Ohio Housing Financing Agency loan which as grants and interest tax credits for first time homebuyers (that can used for up to a four plex), reducing the down payment to 1% if you really wanted.I am going to guess that Akron is similar to the Toledo market it terms of depreciation over time, and so buying the max you can afford may mean that you will loose the most money when you exit.100k in Toledo can buy a pretty nice duplex / 4-plex in Toledo proper, suburban markets are stronger and so you would get less for your money in terms of cash flow.

We are excited to try something new and try and set ourselves up in a stronger financial position.

@Kaylee Walterbach I wish I made a stronger connection with my neighbor and bought my first off market deal.

Something like; "While the market conditions in the Dallas Market are unprecedented and new heights of the median and average home prices at this time, there is still a lack of supply and relatively low new construction permits, strong employment that is getting stronger and still historically low interest rates.

Most banks reserves are now stronger as required by the government to avoid such collapses.  

There's something to the phrase "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger". 

And in certain markets I think we are seeing those.. the hangover inventory is pretty much gone.. the liar loans and sub prime defaults have cycled.. the new Crop like I said of TurnKEY folks is much stronger and PM is on another level altogether than when I started in the space in 2002.. 

Great suggestion for an overlay to add an appreciation comparison to make it stronger.

Today, it is LESS than 2%.Besides feeling that Personal Income Tax is unconstitutional and counter-productive in a Capitalistic System, most of us feel that the government is more interested in buying votes than making America better and stronger.