Yes, one approach is to continue with finding other cash flowing property.Let me suggest some other ideas for you to ponder, especially since you've also mentioned you are looking hard at DST's:What about Opportunity Zone funds? 

Having said that, rents go up over time and as you mentioned tenants are paying down the mortgage (with more going to principal over time). 

As @Robin Smith mentioned, for assessing demand I used FurnishedFinder.com/stats; you can see demand data for a given city and some pricing data too.

A small correction on @Brian Burke mentioned about the centralized location, while there's no one place, there're actually multiple places, that offer view and feedback on a variety of syndicators.

The "high appreciation rates" you mention should be verified with recent data and be specific to the neighborhoods you're targeting.

As mentioned have an attorney or title company draft the note and mortgage.

This is a no-brainer to me, and the others have already mentioned it.

I'm taking everything you mentioned into consideration.  

Let's analyze each issue you've mentioned:1) Tenancy Length: besides issues a landlord can't control, like death, sickness, job loss, etc., the actual management of the property & tenant play a large roll in how long tenants stay in their home.

I have given this renter Dave Ramsey's book The Total Money Make-over but I doubt they have read it because they have never mentioned it.