Those qualities will suit you well in REI!

My question is, would it be smarter to go for a cheaper home (lower mortgage) in a neighborhood which would bring in lower rents and most likely a lower quality tenant... or would it be wiser to spend a little more in a nicer neighborhood where I can attract a higher quality tenant with higher rents?

Even if I have to have them tag-a-long with me to my properties or meet with clients etc..Spending quality time with my friends and family!

@Robert Leonard Thanks, the quality of tenant has not been great so I will see what turns up and give this some thought.I guess this posted twice.

No one wants to be greeted by an angry tenant waiting with firearms.At the appointed time, we come with a locksmith, two moving men and their moving van and us in our protective gear (work clothes, gloves, N95 face mask, and eye protection) and boxes and bring construction quality plastic bags.

We have done the due diligence and have rejected a few that would not be the best, however...We do reward our tenants that provide quality tenant leads....

After that, some say things like "we do quality work, blah, blah, blah" or " I do it right".This can be good and get to a meeting of the minds before wasting my time and theirs, they can also be saying that stuff saying they don't want the job, so I go for that, are you interested in taking the job as I need it?

My concern is simply that renters for a duplex wouldn't be of as high of a quality/less reliable than tenants in a SFH.

Where the extension cord crossed a sidewalk we bought a commercial quality device designed to cover cords over walkways and put two orange caution cones on either side.

Like @David Krulac I fall in-between the polar points expressed here.Though we hold mostly multi-family properties, we do have a few SFRs which are student rentals at this time.In the case of a property that may be sold to a retail buyer, I agree that you would wait until you were preparing for disposition to affect the final cosmetic renewal and possible quality upgrades (i.e. moving to soap stone counters in the kitchen).That said, we look to affect efficiency retrofits early in our ownership of a property - usually at the first opportunity provided by turnover.