I have a question: What would be the benefits/drawbacks to purchasing one apartment in a long stretch of apartments?

There is severe beach erosion in that stretch, unless you have $$$ to throw out the window.

That seems like a Stretch Armstrong level stretch to me.

That still might be a stretch for the bank to believe or treat it like that but that is essentially the issue.

Most of the techniques advocated to price assets are rather crude and thus for most real estate investors it is a Stretch Armstrong level stretch to account for risk too.

If I purchase another property in a couple months, I will be stretched if my whole portfolio went vacant.

My only recommendation is to stretch a bit and buy in a desirable area.

This includes drywall/texturing/paint, re-hanging cabinetry, installing baseboards, replacing carpet padding and tacking/stretching carpet back in place, replacing an ice maker box valve, as well as painting (though we may just do this ourselves).

If I had to do it all over again I wouldn't have stretched myself that thin.

But this is just personal "gut feeling" and opinion -- I would hate to see you stretched and I see John provided his response prior to your response regarding your finances.