So it seems like it really comes down to weighing those trade-offs based on your business plans and goals.Was there anything else you learned after starting to invest in KCMO that surprised you or that you found interesting (whether in a good or bad way)?

That's BS and bad thinking.

Your choice will depend on your level of risk tolerance (holding in a cooling market) and willingness to make additional investments in the property.

It's just a bad entity structuring. 3) On top of that,  you cant hire your son to work for your rental to save some tax as soon as you have MMLLC (out of scope for this post) Also, it does not accomplish anything as to transfer of the property to your son.

Agents can and often do a very bad job due to their primary motivation to make a buck.

In Los Angeles, $385K won't even get you a 1 bedroom condo with a caved-in roof and negative cash-flow.It was bad enough 2 years ago, but now with the Rams moving back and the new stadium under construction, things have gotten bat guano insane.

So, figure out ahead of time how they can pay their rent, as you don't want them to give you a lot of cash, as that could be dangerous to you, if some bad people detect a pattern of you carrying a lot of cash. 

Doesn’t anyone see this as a good or bad offer ?

A example would be if the engine is bad.

Here are some good and bad things about this.In my market real estate is expensive so it's very hard to make things cash flow.