A cat is definitely less stressful, but not trouble free.Cat food left out overnight invites roaches into the house.This I did not experience, but a friend who is a fellow landlord did - a tenant flushed kitty litter down the toilet and caused a blockage in the drain.One time I had to replace a central AC system, tenant had the cat in a bedroom, with door closed. 

It's only about 10 minutes from where I live : )I have systematically designed my life to be as stress free as possibly and avoid the herds.I feel sorry for them sometimes the majority of the population stuck on interstates for many hours and day working that j-o-b.

Building is a huge pain in the butt if you are not in the business and often not worth the stress and aggravation.

That's all well and good if your W2 can support that but in times of economic stress the W2 might be impacted at the same time as the rent has to be lowered.2.)

They "might" - and I stress might - at least consider the house to be a break even for you at that point.I think  the other question is how much money are they claiming you're losing?

I am sure investing out of state can be stressful since your not close to the property.

I have got to the point where am actually a little OCD about this, but that's just because I do not want to stress due to being caught off guard when **** hits the fan, which I know it will particularly considering the age of the property. 

@Christian Wathne - I had not thought about getting into another property/set of properties if we sell one of ours, partly because we want to reduce the stress and time of owning/managing another rental.

I know that it should be a separate issue but I'm concerned about stressing myself out too much and taking too big of a risk since right now I don't have a personal savings.

Overall, don't stress too much, if I were you, I'd try to make sure everything is safe, raise the rent a little, not chase anyone out, and see how things move along and evaluate as you go.