I look forward to continuing to learn from the BiggerPockets community as I navigate my real estate investing journey.I’ve had some success on the eastern shore of Maryland, though even that market has started to frankly become expensive, there are still pockets of potential growth both rent & appreciation, thoigh it’s becoming harder to find, also there is a massive rental shortage out there, a county I just put a property contract on, literally has 3 properties for rent right now, but it does make rental comps quite difficult, outside of that I’ve started looking a little more into western Md and some southern pa markets but still trying to get a feel for them, overall I think in this market places that are affordableish and have some draw will do well with the continued wfh + affordability crisis but keep in mind while I think the eastern shore is actually fairly safe market for the most part a lot of rural areas definitely have boom bust potential and in theory more risk than dc metro, though the low price points do by definition tend to mitigate some of those risks. 

If your investment fails, it may impact your primary residence because of the money you borrowed against it.My preference is that you increase earnings, reduce expenses, save up, and make each investment stand on its own.

Due to the "magic" of real estate (i.e. depreciation, expenses etc.), on paper my properties are functioning at a loss (great for taxes, terrible for DTI). 

My upbringing was lower class but not poverty.

I think it's a great market, but been relatively expensive.

Here is some information that might be helpful.Rent Collection/Property Management:For collecting rent from multiple tenants and managing your property, here are a few popular options:Cozy.co: This platform is free for landlords and provides rent collection, expense tracking, and even maintenance request functionalities.Buildium: This is more comprehensive and suitable if you ever decide to scale up and manage multiple properties.

It can provide tenants more options and possibly lower rates, but it can also signal oversaturation and make tenant placement more challenging.

I was prepared not to claim it as an expense but now I'm having second thoughts.

Established PM's don't like to go into D areas: it's a lot more work and emotionally harder on their staff for the same percentage - but of a lower rent. 

My wife has experience and a good amount of contacts to help us find the cash-pay clients but since Medicaid/Medicare clients are a very stable source of income (even though it is lower than cash-pay) I rather know that stability of Medicaid/Medicare is still there.