Lastly, it's super landlord friendly and the price point for finding positive cash flow is still very low (you can still find tons of great deals for $120-180k purchase price).On the other hand, other Ohio markets like Cleveland and Cincy are dying if you look at their population and job growth.

And like to get on SM and ruin people if you can..

This is such a delusion most people that invest in SFH has and I think it stems from bad BP educators.

I may be overthinking this - I've just never had this much cash on hand and it makes me a little nervous!

Without it, you're really relying on other people's perceptions.

You can have (2) people on the same loan or more. 

I have 50+ people on my contracting company only working on the houses I buy and am speaking from that experience starting with zero contractors less than 3 yrs ago and having been burnt very had multiple times throughout the process. 

I personally would never invest money in an area that I didn't know, with people I didn't know, in a business I knew nothing about.

If we did the 20% down payment loan each of us would need to come to the table with 27,500 each and since we have been remodeling that would basically take out all of our cash on hand, so the HELOC on the 1st house would be so we can finish the remodel and finance the down payment. 

Considering how much I enjoy meeting new people and communicating, the STR approach has been successful and enjoyable Now we are pursuing our second investment property and are considering a property which needs some TLC and has large value added potential, considering that its in a prime location on the oceanfront.