It also depends on accumulating good Cash Flow ($200 per unit/month) over the same timeframe.  

I hope to purchase my first rental at the end of next year and trying to accumulate as much knowledge as possible.

It's absolutely unbelievable the capabilities AI have accumulated in the past few years!

Michael,If you plan on building a management business while accumulating your own property, a management software company such as Buildium may be helpful.

It isn't until we started accumulating assets that we saw the need to protect them. 

My hypothetical is say for example I bought a rental today for 200k and in 10yrs sell it for 300k and over the 10yrs accumulate 100k of deprecation.  

A better way to create true passive income.The whole idea of investing in an asset is to let the hard earned money you have accumulated over the years, work for you, to let it grow for retirement,on its own, without having to invest more time and energy.

I do manage myself and plan to do so while I am in the accumulation phase.

My planned real estate strategy is to accumulate a portfolio of small multifamilys or SFHs, utilizing BP's BRRRR strategy to create cash-flowing Buy & Hold properties.

However, fast forward a few years and the property now appraises for $230k, suddenly that monthly cashflow does not look quite as attractive as the appreciation I have now realized, and I may be able to more effectively use that equity to achieve even greater cashflow somewhere else.Most real estate books I have read note that early on in investors' careers, cashflow is the primary focus, but as investors become more mature and sophisticated, they tend to shift toward accumulating wealth through appreciation.In either case, there is no right or wrong answer, but the flexibility we have to influence our destiny through real estate is what makes this business so attractive compared to other investment opportunities.