Ask to access some equity and deduct from the sale amount.

Obviously a part of any calculation on investment properties.

They'll throw a lot at you: excuses for non-payment, snitching on "#4" (yes, my tenants only referred to each other by apartment number, never by name), why they need this or that.

For example, I recently sold my apartment building in San Francisco because the market is hot (lots of money seeking investments and low inventory).

journey with this house has just began however, After I'm done with these 2 units I'm building 5 more apartments on the vacant lots that came with the home.... may be looking for a partner :-)

What a great place for access to information and the forum to discuss all things REI. 

Have you considered doing multifamily (apartment complexes) instead to scale up faster?

We've discussed how they'll access accounts with view only logins, etc so I feel pretty good about trusting them but I've never hired anyone that wasn't local.

Convenient mountain towns with access to major transportation routes are not significantly less expensive than places on the front range. 

So with that in mind you have to keep in mind that college towns do have a cycle for renting next year's apartments.