@Joseph Beilke we are getting married in Jaco, Costa Rica in a month and thought the same.

Being that rates are up it's another way to offer exatly what you mentioned; the chance to own for a couple hundred bucks more than renting.Thoughts?

Unfortunately that also lowers your return, so you might consider staggering the lower payments and rate (say 6%, then 7%, then back to 8%) over a couple of years. 

We did a couple recent ones that were on market, fixed them up and got them to market after the remodel with a profit.

Have met him personally a couple times and he is just a great guy all around. 

Send me a PM and I'll send you a couple of examples of what is on the market outside of Atlanta so you can run your numbers and see if that fits.

@Kathy Grossart,A couple of things don't fit here:1.

A couple of assumptions I see here stand out to me.

I’m hoping she’ll be able to help me with this, but I don’t meet with her for a couple of weeks, so I’m trying to work through a few things in the meantime! 

Even if these relationships don't go anywhere, you'll get a lot from just having a couple of calls.Next I would try to find some local investment groups/communities and try to chat with as many investors as you can to get an idea how other's started out in your market.