Anyone having success with Facebook ads with an investor Carrot website?  

                     $220 Vacancy/minor repairs/maintenance                    $220 a month for water/sewer/trash/landscape/snow (actual should be way less)                     $1000 debt serviceNET loss of $160 a month      The cash flow is terrible of course, but that is mainly from the outsized taxes which was from what I can tell from tax records an extra school levy, total taxes for 2016 were  $2341 on same valuation.

My Dad likes to buy these types of properties and turn them into rentals to collect the extra cash flow from the non-conforming units ... double bonus if it is in an area with college rentals (that tend to rent by the room) or airbnb.

Renters defaulted in mass creating loss's for undercapitalized landlords who lost homes in droves.. it all added up. 

If you're in a very competitive market you may want to get the house staged (filled with furniture) for marketing purposes.If you must list it in such a way as to disclose the address (for example you list it with an agent as a rental) please spend the extra $15-20 bucks to install a simplisafe alarm system: this is an inexpensive alarm system that works over 3G cellular networks.

My guess is that your "forever home" will NOT be any easier to buy in 8 years than just saving EVERY extra dollar you can in the meantime.

You can just put it as the first item on your extra 20% budget of unplanned expenses that you budgeted for, right?

In order for a random  retail priced sfr rental to have more potential and actual profits overtime than many higher dividend stocks ( reits etc) there would need to be something extra like forced appreciation or be investing in a location that appreciates or vrbo, airbnb, furnished corp rentals etc.

I think in your situation, I would be using the extra savings from your very low rent to pay down debt and build savings.

@Jesse Mills  Just in the for whatever its worth file if I get a message from anyone that even looks canned etc I turn them in for spamming.. you need to make your messages somewhat personal and take the extra couple minutes.. don't just cut and paste