As with any investment PML does carry risk, so investors must weigh their own personal goals and risk appetites against the returns.Long term (after that career of investing you mentioned) I see myself going more heavily into the PML/ LP route.

The silver lining to that is that, because rents increases have been suppressed for a while, there should be some upward pressure on them to snap back up after home prices start to rise again, which is effectively happening now because rates finally went down.

I look for markets with a COC that fills my appetite and that has a critical number of vendors that can service me (eg: property managers and cleaners).

I still consider myself fairly new to this world, and I can say with 100% certainly the biggest battles are the internal ones, and this industry has given the pleasure of being forced to address several of my short comings, and continue to address them all the time.I find I get the most emotional when I get reactionary, so my constant focus is around honing and suppressing reaction as a whole both internal and external.Thanks for taking the time to write this up.

I'm a big fan of Dallas/Houston -- the strategy you pursue should be dependent on the property management resources you have in that market & your appetite for property maintenance (higher for STR's).

Keep in mind the defaults and distressed sales that flow from them will further suppress cap rates until all of that inventory works its way out of the market and investors don't see more of it on the horizon.

@Jason Guenthersomething that has gotten overlooked / suppressed / swept aside recently is this: unless you are executing some high risk, niche strategy - a top performing STR, an insane sub to - there is no cash flow in traditional, vanilla long term rentals in the first few years. 

Depending on your borrower criteria, lending appetite, and investor list, you may or may not have tremendous success!

My wife and I have different appetites for real estate investing and have not found a professional that can help us work together to understand the key questions we should be asking ourselves and help us sort through all of the options.

It all depends on their capital partners and what they like and what kind of appetite for risk they have.