I'm still battling the mental blocks, but you are an inspiration to all of us.

Macro issues seem to be a huge mental hurdle for a lot of investors but that is largely out of our hands. 

In my opinion, you should steer clear from buying a property with existing tenants... its not always easy to remove them and can be emotionally and mentally taxing but if you have to buy with tenants your first property and its a good deal then it may be worth it.

But, I think this is a big risk...you definitely have the herd mentality chasing MF. 

I would hate to see your high-earning W2 suffer due to real estate whether that's time or mental distraction.I would focus on staying in the game with the high income W2 as long as possible, keep those expenses low, throw your added money into index funds, and see about doing real estate when you start pulling back from the W2.

I would not prioritize the 12 months of "guaranteed" rent.

I have a strong passion for nature and mental/ physical rest and recuperation but don’t want to get to far over my head to begin with, want to take this step by step.

My guess is that the realtor is not prioritizing the property.

Most of my tenants have been with me 3-4 years.I'd explore self-showing options with smart locks, but in the Detroit market that's not really an option given the prevalence of security doors.At this point I'm not wasting mental energy trying to figure it out until I have to.

Another benefit is to take the mental legwork out of repetitive tasks.