If your retirement utterly depends on having adequate cash flow from your properties, any downturns will cripple you.

On "invest where you know and live first" - I think that's great and it depends.

What I recommend to all my first time investor clients is to start with house hacking.House hacking is a great way to get your feet wet with REI and also getting your own roof over your head. 2 birds, 1 stoneThe biggest benefit for newer investors that go the house hacking route is that they have the ability to put a minimum downpayment of 3.5% or 5% down depending on the loan program and also get access to the best rates since they are buying a primary residenceIf you ever want to chat more about RE, I would be happy to do so.

This depends on your CPA.

I make about $75k-$85k a year depending on my sales.

You may also need to pay for internet when vacant so smartlock can access wi-fi.

Please adviseThanks Its not bad to have surge protectors on equipment, really depends on where you are and how the electric grid is. if you lose power a lot then surge protection is highly recommended. electronic filters, again nice to have but honestly do not feel needed. just my opinion

Depending on your market, I’m getting 40-50% more cash flow renting as an MTR compared to LTR. 

It depends.

There's tons of literature on the internet.