I had a situation recently where a young tenant was not working out and not taking care of the property and I called up his mother who co-signed the lease and said I was going to have to do an eviction.  

I"m gonna take care of this today!!

I've not yet done the math to determine which strategy would save me more money, but the big cons of this areNo primary residence, therefore slightly higher interest rates, 20 - 25% down (but depending on the market, this may very well be equivalent to 3.5 - 5% down in LA).Depends on the quality of tenant screening, but it's probably safer to assume that they won't take as great care of the property as I would.Probably need a property manager, professional or tenant.Either strategy seems to net me the same cost around $1,500 monthly, but I'm biased towards Los Angeles as I can rent to friends which solves a lot of the tenant/landlord issues.I'm not looking for anyone to give me all the answers but would appreciate any insight, food for thought, and constructive criticism. 

The bank doesn't know or care because they're receiving the mortgage payments on time and there's no change of title or anything.Here's my plan.......Can I purchase a second residence/vacation condo? 

I take good care of the units and keep them up.

The cons are that the interest rates for these deals are significantly higher than the conventional mortgage loans (1-2 percent higher) which cuts into returns.Option 3) Save a larger chunk of investment cash for the down payment on a multi-family (small apartment complex) property.  

The problem is that many of the lines bringing gas INTO properties are still owned by the original company and they take their cut of the cost via what they often describe as a "pass through" charge.I recently had gas turned on at a property we were selling as required for the inspection. 

So you must vet them carefully as well. 

MOST tenants will not take care of the carpeting in a rental as they might if they owned the house/unit.2. 

That doesn't cut it for me.