I’m happily married, with two great kids, a solid career, and have gotten more out of life than I probably deserved!

Then they have to sit there until it's done, to make sure nobody throws their underwear out on the floor, listening to everybody else's kids running around screaming (Our kids are very well-behaved, naturally).

Fast forward 3 years... we’ve both built our credit, bought our primary residence, have two kids with a third on the way, solid middle class jobs, and some consumer debt.We were gung-ho to get going in 2019 after bonus and tax time to get a rental property finally.

I use this space as my den now but as the kids venture off it could be an STR - but then again is it worth the uneasiness...?

First, you should consider what expenses your property typically produces for tenants in addition to the rent.

Hello BP,We built an addition to a SFH and converted it from a 1-residence to a 2-residence unit. 

I recently was advised by my broker that in order to purchase an additional property in the future I had to pay down more debt (I have great credit, I work in the medical profession with great W2 income, etc etc). 

That is why, in addition to a few others, not a lot of people hold property in their retirement accounts, but rather they buy mortgages.

Now that this work was done, each apartment only has 15 amps and there's washers, dryers and most have one or two additional freezers as well.

I was planning on still having 50% of my IRA remaining to continue to grow, in addition to 100% of my wife's.