I’m looking to break even after ~2 years.

My recommendation would be to choose potential markets - in several price points - that have strong rental demand and year-over-year rent increases and that also are in markets that are appreciating. 

Grandpa and Grandma take five acres on the back forty and punch in a well and sewer (when it was cheap to do so), run some water and sewer lines with the old backhoe. 

Net migration is still positive but has slowed from the crazy net migration numbers during the boom years. 

Quote from @Sherief Elbassuoni: Whenever I have cash, I put it as a downpayment for a new rental.Even if you got 4-5%, this is less than inflation, so your money is loosing valueMonth over month inflation is more current information than year over year...and it has been near zero in total for the past nine months and negative for 5 of those 9 months. 

Our plan is to use the "Sneaky tactic" and for the next few years, the plan is to buy a house that needs a little TLC, fix it up as we live in it and move on to buy another house until were tired of doing it or reach a decent income.

Make 2025 the year to build those relationships.Cheers! 

value of the properties each year like I've seen some other funds charge, which is akin to taking an acquisition fee every year.

@Ahmad Mikell, we've been in NA for about 9 years.

I have gotten 2 this year so far on the market that pencil for us at roughly 50%+ return cash on cash after lending and holding costs