One of the key components I like from SFR is debt/mortgage paydown which allows for leverage later on down the road, or if i chose, to just fully cashflow a paid off home.  

Without screwing the TB, just adjust the terms, the discount or something which aligns interests. 

A business plan aligns your thought processes and helps your future interactions with sellers/investors/lenders and so on. 2) Learn how to accurately understand how ARV’s are decided.

Then word-of-mouth is an excellent source for students as they want to live cheaply with their friends and give referrals to incoming students.Another initial suggestion is to make sure to review Texas Fair Housing laws and make sure your advertising and screening process aligns with those laws.

Not to sure of the Houston market, but aligning yourself with a localized property manager may do some good as they have their hands on the pulse of the market everyday.

Working with the city can be difficult, but aligning yourself with someone who knows their way around the code is very helpful.

For me, the components of the decision should be your local (NYC area) and state (NY) economy (look at hard data), the political environment (biz friendly or ?)

Your lender is an integral part of your team, and you should spend some time building a relationship so you have that component ready when the right deal comes along. 

Your risk is if major components need repairing like the roof, AC, HVAC, and you aren’t prepared for it, or if your tenant stops paying, trashes the place, and you need to evict.

For one thing, how long something lasts can be guessed at but it's not possible to accurately predict how long a component will last. ie, does a water heater last 6, 10, 14 or 20 years?