You are excluding possibly the majority of available tenants to focus on the most difficult to manage and the ones who are most likely to leave your property heavily worn and damaged, all other things being equal.

Under $100k, were talking Old, beat up, it's coming with issues and the vast majority of time there is hidden uglies that come out later. 

BUT, know it's overkill for the vast majority of persons.

And you can do it with little cash, 5% down conventional is better than 3.5% FHA.House hacking also gives you a chance to cut your teeth in all major skills: analyzing deals, buying process, financing, working with contractors, advertising for rent, background checks, property management.

Having developed a majority of my career in CA the regulations and red tape for construction and development are intense. 

,While no investment is completely passive, proper real estate investing should be relatively boring.You asked about the process and major considerations.

Quote from @Bob Dole: All,Apologies for the newb question, but I just heard about cost segregation and have been reading up about it online.My understanding is this (and please correct me where I'm wrong):Pros: -accelerate depreciation, front load (vs. just a straight line over 39 years) -save money on taxes because of the depreciationCons: -if I sell the property, the recapture will be larger -not recommended if you flip propertiesSo hypothetical situation:-Majority of our income is W2 based, let's say it's $500k-Net income from commercial rental is $100k-Income from dividends and interests is $100k-Both of us are full time W2, so non-prof real estate (but this can change  -- please see below)So we're hypothetically grossing $700k a year. 

We did major renovations and repairs on both units for about 40k total and were able to get rents up to $1250.

With my LTRs I have been switching to all tenant paid utilities after my first winter where I discovered the majority of my tenants were setting the heat at 78 (which is unreasonable in Northern New Hampshire) and leaving their windows open in -20 degree weather.

The majority is RE agents & associates desperate for business, predatory and awful.