I know this is an older post but I wanted say a few things...Yes- there is an actual town called Niceville....it is wonderful.I am a real estate agent here and former financial planner turned investor after realizing that 7-8% on a good year was not enough in the stock market.Let me know if you haven't found a favorite- perhaps we can help each other.

Things could have happened (say a hurricane or flooding) could have caused damage. 

Hypothetical question; asking for a friend.What are the prospects of purchasing, say, a triplex using the equity from another duplex as collateral? 

Say a new printer for the home office that is just for work.

I also would recommend Jon Hyndiuk (Hyndiuk Law, he also owns ISR Title), Michael Plumb/Rob Sayas (Sayas, Schmuki & Plum SC)--I think Rob owns or is a partner in Royalty Title, Rob Saya's brother Jonathon Sayas is also an attorney and is Stewart Title's on staff attorney, and James Eby who is also a popular RE lawyer and he's been involved in some probate deals we've done.

Then Id say "A" is decently a way to go, a more costly way but "B" is a better option and be would be about $300.

I would say a good place to start is learning your market, learning the neighborhoods, and it  takes time to really know the  value of each deal.

I would even say a 20 min walk is fine, as that amounts to a 4-5 minute bus ride, and i can't see any students being that averse to riding the bus to school.  

Are you able to be the RE agent on, say a 10+ MFU purchase the same as you would on a traditional SFR? 

We literally have had zero vacancy on most of our property in years.Maintenance is typically $1000 a year on a 1 million dollar property and our values double every 10 years, actually every 7.8 years but let's call it ten.So if you can afford to get in you will create more wealth over time than say a city like Memphis where I invest in the USA