And yes, you'll occasionally have to stretch past your comfort zone.

Occasionally post cards too.

When I had to make trips there for the occasional fixes (Pipe froze and busted in the winter, tree blew over from wind, etc) it was pretty easy. 

Hello,I have family in the small town of Mason City, Iowa, so I travel there occasionally.

In my spare time I love hanging out with my family, travelling, I occasionally like to fly small airplanes, and most recently I've been tinkering with home automation (Smartthings).Once my business partner and I have worked out exactly what we want to do (current thinking is buy and hold back in Wisconsin, where we have contacts on the ground and prices are more reasonable), we'll begin to look for opportunities and pull the trigger.  

With my history of rental properties I occasionally toy with the idea of getting into commercial rental property(apartments).

Fortunately I only have to do it occasionally, and only for one or two tenants when it happens.

Of course I realize there would have been the occasional repair and vacancy but I would not have budgeted for it via a 50% factor.As far as the advice on the refi goes, the numbers I quoted are based on a refi that I am going through right now and I will be closing very soon.Thanks again for giving me a place to work through these thoughts.

Occasionally you'll run into one that continues to appreciate like a goose laying golden equity eggs.

For instance, he says he prefers to work "alone" and seems to get personally offended when we have other people come in occasionally to do the painting, tearing out carpets, etc., to move things along.