As rentals the capital requirement to rent ratio is more favourable than a SFH ... to the point where you really do not care about re-sale value in 10-20 years.

If it's north of the river, be careful

However, working with a rockstar LO that understands investors and who truly cares to help you make the most money possible, now that's a game changer.Hope that helps, best of luck!

Initially, I thought of the $2k "profit" a month being cut down to $1k a month with water bills and various repairs here and there.

I might even be able to get away with a slightly lower bid on the property in exchange for a chance at a higher payout in the future.My initial concern is that their cut might have to be cost prohibitively high in order to be appealing.

Let the owner know that we would love to cut their grass for free with no strings attached. 

You can probably live a better life style on 6k of w2 because of  Benefits  (health care being the big one)  Conventional loans are going to be tough, your income is going to be scrutinized more.  

I self manage our 20 units, and I couldn't care less about who my tenants have staying with them and for how long ...

I don't care if they were paying $2500 a month...lol

@Jay HinrichsCorrect me if I'm wrong but the way I read The Tax Cuts and Job Acts for upcoming 2018 tax is that standards deduction is 12k for single/24k for married, making many people not able to use the reduce SALT deduction.Even if I'm to claim tax credit on my resident tax form for taxes paid in other state.....the property taxes, state income tax and local tax are only deductible up to $10k.