@Ben Jones Closing costs in the Midwest are much lower than CA as you discovered.

I just discovered HappyInvestor.com.

(I have discovered that banks prefer W-2 income over rental income and barely recognize mortgage note income.)7.

Indiana little bit of weather but really low tax's as well.. those pesky tax rates are something to really watch.Now for appreciation which I personally think is an important component to this whole strategy Certain areas of Texas will have a lot of draw on that card.. or MF were tax rates are already backed into the rates of returns.Just sayin.. 

It is a terrible mistake to let a tenant take on a project and then nine months later discover they started but never finished.

If you want some sort of rental component, then house hack it.

I'd prefer to find out from the first communication that they don't have their you-know-what together rather than get further down the pipeline to discover that fact. 

Getting 400 isn't necessarily better, especially when it's discovered how many inquiries are the same person.

Are the units currently side by side or is there an up/down component?

She recently helped me through a buy when the seller was discovered to not have legal authority to sell property (daughter selling as executrix, mom passed away in a different state than the property and does not have a probated will, dad passed away 30+ years ago with no will and not probated, mom and dad are the legal owners of the property).