Pick a place where lots of people want to rent, the houses are cheap, and there's a chance for growth.

Spokeo is the "best" cheap option, but still maybe only 40% reliable.

We have very little vacancy and I’ve been able to continue to increase my rate after each tenant. 

We are hoping to retire to this home in 2-10 years and figured we'd buy why rates are cheap and let someone else pay the mortgage for awhile.

I'd be curious to hear what others have seen for rates on a deal like this.

prices and rates are high and there is lots of competition for deals, both on and off market. 

I see vacancy rates going up and rent going down in the next few years, along with depreciation.  

As for paying it down vs waiting-if you have enough to get a mortgage now and the down payment and the interest rates on the debt are low; then find a rental and buy it.  

Probably worth about 260k)Down payment: $100,000Interest rate: 6.75% (option to raise rate in 3 years but not down)Loan Term: 30 yearsBuyers monthly payments: $1,394.49When I crunch this into Chat GPT is says I am getting a 271.87% ROI.

DC is one of the lowest cap rates in the country.If you have a long time horizon, and have patience, with the areas strong rent growth you can end up with more cash flow here than a high cap rate market.