Smaller banks hold the paper and will give you up to 10 mortgages. 

@Anthony Podloski condotels are best when you are buying for personal use and wish to offset the holding costs.

I am educating myself on buy-n-hold investing.

I have been exploring my options for buy and hold & multi family for some time, however I live in a high-cost market so "deals" can be challenging to come by.

It is hard to say what the future holds but you just have to depend on the present.  

My main goal is to become a buy & hold investor, to start accumulating properties slowly and surely (in a pace of 1-2 doors every 1-2 years) until I have enough passive income to live my life by my own standards.

If buy and hold, I have a great referral for you. 

I want to openly invite anyone interested in learning more about real estate investing especially the buy and hold side of things to come check out this months REI Meeting here in Fall River.

I would use the term Profit/Loss to talk about the total difference at the end of the year...Certainly your points with percentages pertaining to repairs, vacancy, and capex all hold water. 

Residential/ Commercial, Flip, Buy/Hold, Transaction Money....?