My partner had some taken off from work during her second pregnancy and we have started catching up with finances.

I also have a friend that bought brand new construction, but had to shell out tens of thousands in repairs because the home wasn't built properly, the inspection didn't catch the issues, the builder didn't have a warranty on the property, and insurance didn't cover all the problems.

Even if you don't have rent caps, it is better to do smaller increases each year before you find yourself in a situation where you are far behind and need to catch up. 

If your goal is appreciation, you'll find markets that have very little cash flow (if any), and you won't realize your return until much later down the road when cash flow catches up or you sell the property.There are probably thousands of markets to invest in.

I sat in on a lot of the meetings with owners/city and it seems for the most part to me, the city is just not interesting in AirBnB and as an investor, that's not a good place to be or be right.There will always be probably a few people who skirt the law or think they have a good workaround, but often catch 22. 

After catching the investing bug, I flipped my first property and turned it into a rental—which I am still renting today!

Sounds like I am going to have to do some further research on how to investigate past evictions since it seems there's no catch-all approach.

what about columbia is catching your eye?

If appreciation is slow and steady, and no extra liquidity is available, the basic fundamentals of personal finance do catch up to this investor.

I think you are trying to catch too many rabbits at once.