Because something like a noise or parking infraction would never be committed by an owner occupant would it, has to be renter. 

Give yourself some slack - There is enough information and noise in this space to make anyone's head spin.  

I have a pretty demanding W2 job, pays well, but want to quit the rat race soon, so tough to figure out if I want to keep scaling to grind out some more or just pay down debt and live free in 7 years.

I am currently interested in a property close to the waterfront but from walking the area this past weekend, it's not in the greatest area (no surprise, as expected).. there was noise, rift raft on the street, shady neighbors, .. etc.

How do they monitor the property for excessive noise/occupancy?

We are out of the city limit Definitely a grind to get all these done while fighting with the city/county over tid bits of requirements. 

We rented one unit for 3 months to a young professional and we ended up getting a fair number of complaints when the other unit was turning over more frequently - people coming home late at night, noise, parking in her spot, etc. etc.  

., is a nice strategy for your vision board, but far less important compared to the daily grind you need to embrace.  

Or do I have to grind out in my 20s saving vigorously.

WaMu told me that there were 3 key elements in getting this to happen 1) My constant calling and making noise up the mgmt chain 2) A hardship, although not behind on payments it was obvious to them that we would be in a bad situation in the coming months if they didn't approve 3) The drastic drop in value and that it is still going down sharply in our area, their appraisal came in lower than our offer, which made them realize 8 to 9 months down the road when they get it back in foreclosure they will, not might, be in a deeper hole.The buyers loan funded on Friday, they got the keys from my realtor and started moving in.