Or should I ride this ou until I pay it off? 

If the numbers work then you should be able to ride the economy wave.

Hood and riding my dirtbike.I haven't been listening for long but I found BiggerPockets through listening to real estate podcasts, instead of gluing myself to a tv (which I don't have) I try to absorb everything I can while staying busy laying flooring, painting or whatever the task is of the night!

It it is hard to beat good ole fashion market research on your own to price right, but it is tedious.Also I am setting the books up on QuickBooks with my accountant.

Auctions seem to take place in a variety of fashions these days.Best thing to do is to search on main sites like Zillow or Realtor.com or Realtytrac or others.

Larger companies/landlords are more prone to larger rent hikes as they operate in a more business-like fashion.  

Here's a graph of San Francisco's historical high-tier home values to show you the roller coaster ride we're on:We go up, and then we go down, and then we go up even higher, and come back down again.

Even if you don't make money on this unit, and are just able to cover your costs, being able to take care of someone in this fashion may be well worth it to you.

. - Don't mind commuting - Some of the more popular suburbs like Naperville require a 1 hour train ride to your office. - Weather - Having lived in both Dallas and Chicago I can tell you that the weather conditions in Chicago can range from abysmal to armageddon in the winter.  

_r=1&Deciding between Charlotte and Philadelphia was challenging, but this is how I did it: Step 9: I pulled high level statistics from Trulia, the census bureau, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (college educated percentage, commuter percentages, house hold income, median age, home owners percentage, marital status, crime, 1900 to present population growth, 10 year jobs growth rates).Charlotte won out on household income, less crime, population growth, jobs growth and more college educated peoplePhiladelphia had more renters, less driving to commute, more single peopleI also pulled approximate rents and median home prices by neighborhood and Philadelphia won on better cap ratesStep 10: My final decision: Philadelphia Philadelphia is also closer to NYC (2 hour train ride), has improving demographic trends (gentrification), more affordable for my budget, stronger rents, and larger urban center with more investment options (SFR and MFR)There are obviously downsides such as older buildings, higher crime rates, historical population growth issues We can debate the merits of one city over another, but eventually one has to get off the proverbial pot and make a decision.