I'm doing well recently with a conservative dividend focused ETF that's giving 10%,  with very little price growth or decrease. 

This can worsen your situation because, although your rental income decreases, your payment remains unchanged.

Is there a chance that rates and prices decrease in the next 1-4 years as our cash reserves increase, thus creating a better scenario for us first time investors?

Therefore, I would ensure that the current NOI is accurate based on YOUR assumptions, then you can think about how you can increase the NOI by increase revenues or decreasing costs over the coming years IF you were the owner.

would hurt anything would be it might decrease the number of types of debt you have but I’d just be happier to have less debt and work on building up your credit score in other more positive ways like paying off some credit cards if you have balances on any of them.

//cash Nathan - I'm curious to learn more about your position on appreciation and decreasing home values.

That ROI is how to calculate how you make money in notes and do not understand the value of the note decreases with every payment so ROI is probably the worst metric.3.

However my cash flow has decreased from $400 a month (in 2019) to now $110 a month in January 2023 due to property tax increases.

If your tax burden decreased by more than the cost of the study, it may be considered worthwhile.

But that is a very good point and one I am still considering because 4 homes on 1200sqft lots would sell in a day for 1 mil if they have garages (1440sqft lots are the min zoning requirement) I would just have to get variances that take 6-8 months.....I would be able to reach a larger demographic and decrease the risk of it sitting....As a matte of fact his was the original plan until I found out that I do not get to build garage by right, which became a problem due to not funding myself, thus unable to wait for the varience without losing money in the process (3000 a month, 8 months 21k, maybe I could wait even with the loan and still make out good, I am contemplating this)....Other than that I have no arguments to anything you have mentioned.