I thought the decision was based on a combination of factors. 

What it found is that unleveraged residential properties outperformed everything else on a risk-adjusted basis in both the historic and modern eras.

My wife and I combined our finances when we got married and she became a stay-at-home-mom after our daughter was born, so there is some stress in terms of a large dollar investment. 

We've just begun to look into a property that has a combination of short term executive (furnished) units and traditional market rent units. 

Why not combine elements of 1 & 2? 

But, say by some insane chance, modern technology figures out how to do that, I want to go back in time and talk to my dad one last time before he died -- yeah, that's not going to happen either.

"We've locked ourselves out of the cabin and the combination isn't working!"  

That is a much different picture than someone who would be at a combined loan to value of 75% with a 2nd lien, versus a 1st lien at a very low loan to value. 

I just hit 30, I'm highly conscientious and learn quickly, and I want to beat the 9-5 life.My wife and I both work full time, combined gross income is about 76k.

You're not including Repairs / CapEx (combined 15% of rent), vacancy (10%), or management (10%).