Hell, my family came to town to visit and I bought furniture and they all stayed there before it was mine :-)

I am Texas based so may answers will skew more towards my region but I would leave to hear what are some other areas you may be paying attention to that isn't as popular as some of the main stays (Smokies, Joshua Tree, etc)Mine right now are 1.

Mine was back when I was 18 years old.

ALL mine are 2, 3 %ish rule, all in 75k, rent will be 1700, All in 90K, rent will be 1800- 2k, all in MH 95k, rent will be 1700ish, 1% is VERY easy.BTW NEVER buy the prop just because its the 1% rule, MASSIVE mistake.

I'm thinking I should sell and reserve those funds for investments in stocks or even gold or a small business I can buy.

Absolute gold on your comment, thank you for adding it.

Mine have formica, but if I needed to make a change I would probably do quartz to increase resale value if I ever decided to sell. 

This tenant has since had another child and moved to a different larger unit of mine and is still one of my favorite tenants.

Couple buddies of mine from the Bay Area ended up investing near Sacramento (better price points than the bay). 

Dallas-Fort Worth is a smart choice, man the growth there is off the charts, and there’s plenty of room for first-timers with the drive to go all-in.I remember helping a buddy of mine who was in a similar boat to you, he was switching from a totally different career and diving into real estate.