Also keep in mind that if you buy a rental you will want to keep some cash reserves on hand to handle maintenance/cap ex - of course that depends on the condition of the property you buy, or the level of rehab you do if you fix one up. 

Have you evaluated other rentals to confirm your price is accurate?

I hope someone can confirm or deny that for you.

Want to confirm before visiting the site.

Do not sign the contract before those late payments are confirmed in writing after you have paid them by the mortgage servicer. 

Fortunatley I finally manage to get someone into the managers office to talk to him and after 7pm I get a call back from him, apologizing for the trouble and confirming the CD will go out tonight yet, we can hold the closing date. 

The appraisal will have all the info on it as far as NOI, but it is up to the lender to decide how seriously they will take that number.Some lenders require it to big double the mortgage payment at least, others require it to be occupied, while if you have reserves for a couple months, they don't care.What you mainly want to look for is what lender the borrower is using or if you're getting an appraisal for yourself to just ask upfront.Hope this helps, feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Taking it a step further, I thought it would be a good idea to consider multifamily properties where I could rent out the other unit(s) to cover the mortgage (or even better produce positive cash flow) while reserving one unit for my vacation home. 

I do not believe the LL can charge you more than you would have paid if you had completed your lease (I could not confirm this belief).So if a unit is going to be empty, either the newly purchased unit or your current rental, so that you must pay on both places, I see no advantage to not breaking the lease. 

For that tenant class you will most likely have higher turnover rates so be sure to have the cash reserves to turn the unit.  8% management seems low.