As an alternative, what are some good neighborhood in New York State to focus my note investment in?

When I say in the process, I mean we have secured lending, have evaluated and attempted purchase of 1 candidate (couldn't close the deal) and are now moving on to another candidate that we like.I've been reading around the forums about some of the financial evaluations and am working to understand why Net Present Value of free cash flows is not being used more in the evaluation of a property.It is interesting to understand the CoC as an income statement percentage and it is certainly interesting to do some quick calculations with perhaps the 50% rule.But until you take a series of cash flows, discount them by a Weighted Average Cost of capital, and determine if you can clear your next best alternative (stock market, paying down debt), how do you know if you really have a something that will make you money?

After I drove to the house with my truck loaded up with supplies to repair a floor and wasted a ton of money on gas, I find that a few peel and stick tiles had been damaged by the tenant.

In an adjoining municipality five trucks handle the entire job.

Form what you have said it sounds like the "master lease option" is the way to go to limit your risk so you can walk but give you the upside if your plan to turn around and create equity works.The key even with a MLO is how much TIME you will devote to this property and endeavor versus alternative investments and returns you could be making.

My goals are to build a supplemental retirement income for my husband and I (we are a little bit behind) and to build an income producing career for myself so that my husband can pursue an alternative career and leave his $140000 yr job without much of a change in living standards.

As others have mentioned, you are giving her a significant amount of money when the alternative is $0.As @Dave Grosse mentioned, don't forget to add your cut into the equation.

The alternative is to refi into a 15 yr note and still maintain $30k in cash reserves.

So if you are truly considering paying down your primary home mortgage as a good alternative to investing in real estate, then you need to hone your investing skills and deal finding skills more before anything else.  

After that, for about 5 years, I wanted to open a trucking transportation company, but when i turned 17, i found out that I just wanted to do trucking because of money, and reading some forums on here (before being a member) stated that the odds of you being successful are very low if you dont enjoy what you do.