If you buy the house at the right price, over the long haul, it's pretty tough to lose.

One of the line items I see get missed time and again is the final cleaning so it is stage/show ready and the clean up & haul away of debris and trash throughout the course of the project.

So not exactly a flip, but same end result...Full details here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/311/topics/434246-duplex-under-contract---flipping-karma-and-a-new-toy

  ( the yard work would be the only thing I would hire out due to hauling )

A toy soldier clause in my lease. 

The tech industry growth/presence (Cisco, Redhat, IBM, Lenovo, etc) and job diversity in Raleigh-Durham, the well-established Universities & student/affordable housing needs, the friendly landlord regulations, the favorable affordability gap (difference between cost to rent and cost of mortgage monthly) and the population growth are all some great reasons.Speaking of population growth, check out U-Haul's migration trends of 2019.

We toyed with trying to make money with it over the years like storage or something like that but we just get too busy doing our day jobs.. 

In my area they sell of their toys like campers, 4 wheelers and guns, etc. 

I'm going to keep mine going for a little while longer but I am definitely not into it for the long haul. 

We have been toying with the idea of writing it into our actual lease language - that rents will be increased by ~X% annually with a 5yr table showing the increases - say ~2% looks like $1200, $1225, $1250, $1275, $1300 - however, we are worried that it will either outpace or under pace market rents.