I’m a broker based in Charlotte, NC, and I work with Compass to support investors in maximizing their growth strategies.

@Nate MarroquinAny side hustles you can do to get income and savings up? 

CT isn't cheap so if you plan on doing it there you are going to surprised at how poorly you do. maybe in the suburbs I'm not sure but as much as I know people call us from CT and everyone is rich and has lots of money and things are expensive out there. build to rent is a great model. we build 3 story walk up infill and keep it to the residential side. 3 units is the most units before it's commercial and you need engineering, etc. check comparable and things liek that. we came up with this design a year ago and we sold 10 if you want to talk further please DM me happy to connect. there are some great build to rent conferences. we went vertical not horizontal with it to save on build costs and design to fit on any infill lot. this fits on a 3500 square foot lot. most lots in our area are 30x120 or 30x150. in miami where I live now they are 50x100 or so. but any infill lot we can pretty much get this one on. there are some great build to rent conferences coming up too that if you like this topic I'd recommend attending I'm sure you'd learn a lot.  

Wife and I would like to phase out of work here soon so would like to maximize income so we can really enjoy retirement and help out our daughters if needed.   

At 6% I’ve only saved $360k, but you would have saved $720k, an extra $72k/yr.

This will save you time and effort, as you won’t have to travel long distances to manage different properties or handle tenant issues.For your first investment, I suggest starting with 2-4 unit properties.

What are your long term goals (eg do you want to buy another house) and do you have a large savings set aside for unexpected expenses? 

Appfolio is more expensive but after saving money for these past 5 months I have determined RentRedi could be free and I would pass.  

Just make sure you are saving towards those slow months during the peak months, buy a deal at the right price (don't overpay just because its a turnkey STR or you think it will make more money than projected), and look into ways to increase bookings during those slow months with some marketing and operation tweaks. 

For example, my appliance store gives me a 10% discount, so I charge a 5% markup to my owners to make a little money and the owner still saves 5% from retail.