MOST tenants will not take care of the carpeting in a rental as they might if they owned the house/unit.2. 

So I require skin in the game (average is 5% to 15%) to offset this.

Be careful daisy-chaining your properties together financially with HELOCs because if a downturn in the market occurs, your property investments will fall like dominos.

Most will require you to have skin in the game.  

So many variables, gotta have some thick skin for that potential roller coaster ride..

That's why these are taken care of in court.

If Texas agents are taking care of you, your in good hands. 

Any landlord in these areas care to comment?

Or you can learn by reading, listening, watching, and still find that you would be 10x farther along if you had just started by  connecting with the right person from the beginning.Find out what kind of area you are interested in investing in, put the funds together and say here's my skin in the game, then connect on Connected Investors, BP, local facebook pages, local reia meetups, and elsewhere.

I have been using the money I made those first 2 years to start other businesses and now to continue to flip and rent.Because of real estate, I get to be at home and watch my two young kids grow up without having to be sent off to day care and get to travel with my wife and family.