Andrew,Did I hear minor speeding tickets?

It such a big ticket item you are better safe than sorry.   

The normal big ticket items are the hvac or the roof. 

Mostly because the net income by then will be around $500 or $600 per month per house which is more than enough to handle the occasional big ticket repair.The one thing I will say I understand is that I wouldn't want to have to count on my real estate income to replace my job income at a 1 to 1 basis.

The kitchen and to some extent the baths are not as taste specific so that is good they are big ticket items that I think would appeal to most people.

when this shows up in the mail, future lottery ticket.

If you're starting out and need a lower price point to get into a property, if you're not interested in maintaining mechanical or roofs, if you want managed costs (HOA's) versus the occasional big ticket cost (hot water heater fails), they can be a great option.  

so we could retire, or at least take off for a whole year.We spent about 6 months scaling down our lives, sold our property with the mega mortgage and paid cash for a small home (which we later rented out), a fellow agent took care of our rental properties for a small fee, and we bought a one-way ticket to New Zealand, via Fiji.

The Dept. of Justice says rebates are allowed in Arizona and 39 other states. https://www.justice.gov/atr/competition-and-real-estate-state-7 But the Dept. of Justice website calculation on Realtor Rebate Savings is very weak as you can do a lot better  https://www.justice.gov/atr/consumers-save-thousands-commissions Also, depending on the loan and type of property you're purchasing, Buyer Agent Rebates can:pay for Interest Rate Reduction pay for rental car for buyers while in FLpay for plane tickets to FL to shop pay to eliminate PMI pay to buy out remainder of leasepay towards down paymentpay for the 1st full year of home ins. pay for taxes and ins. escrowspay for a Home Warrantypay for home repairspay off credit card debt, auto loans, etc.pay off collections and judgmentspay for new furniturepay for all new appliancespay for home remodeling and additionspay to have home painted pay for weekly pool maintenance pay for credit repair pay for landscapingpay for monthly lawn carepay for new A/C system...........and pay portion to prior agent for their efforts

@Rick HarmonYou encourage and scare me in the same post :-)So you have done plenty of RM deals, but at the same time there is a HIGH possibility of exposing yourself to kids protecting their meal ticket and claiming elder abuse.