I am having so much fun thinking about the investment potential in RE and the possibilities for creating a life of increased wealth, time, and flexibility.

I think most of this stuff is blown.. over  and over reacting to a once in a life time crash that was 08.. markets always ebb and flow that's the reality.. it cant always be red hot.. it can be hot and it can be cool. or just  warm.. but crash's don't come every 10 years.. 

That would leave me with no where to live though so I would have to find another property.I could use an FHA loan but I don't like the idea of PMI for the life of the loan.

If you run into trouble in the future you could lose all 4 properties.Instead, I'd see if each seller would let you take over the mortgage, pay the owner their equity and they move on with life.

Life rewards those who take risks- educated risks!

I got into buy/repair/hold SFHs in 2007 and left my W2 job 9 years later and life is wonderful.

Continual need to change as life changes. 

I'm going to be selling off the more management intensive stuff in the coming months and replacing it with more chill stuff, because life is too short, you know what I mean?

The point when you want to tell an inspector to gtfo my property, is the point where you want to go to war and really make your life miserable.I assume your permits/inspections included the pex?

@Samir Shahani your notion is correct - I don't know where there idea came from to correlate repairs and maintenance to rent - if anything they have a somewhat inverse correlation.Repairs and maintenance depend on two things - replacement value of the property and age.A property is a list of systems: plumbing, electrical, windows, roof, driveway etc - and every one has a useful design life span.