My preference is single family or multi-family homes in the northern NJ area, only because this is it will be easier to manage it all.  

@Matthew JohnI have always prefer that all expenses go to them.

I prefer to use actual numbers as opposed to relying on the 70% rule (which has issues for very high and very low priced houses).  

Your writings indicate your just looking to pay cash and have a propertyThe theory with brrr is you get it below market, fix it, rent it, way till it is seasoned (6-12 mos) then refinance it and get all your cash back because you have 20%+ equity in the dealAs an example I bought a condo for $70k, put $20k into it, rented it for $1500 and refinanced it as it appraised for $140k so I took a 90k loan to get my money out (don’t take extra but some may- personal preference).Now I got my 90k cash back, so no cash in deal and rent is paying PITI + condo fees and still cash flowing $200.

I'm trying to find somewhere to refer my accountant to, preferably on IRS.gov, to show that it can be claimed.

That ends up around $3,000 dollars to net around $10,000 dollars.Unless your mailing probates (and pretty much only that niche), 300 isn't going to get it done (or you'd just have to be extremely lucky or in the perfect non-competitive market).

Anyone that's deploying needs to give a general (or preferably a durable) POA to someone anyway, ideally a spouse, parent, or sibling.

So the point being the term may merge with your niche or strategy.Today, I focus more on the landlord tenant relationship and getting good people (superb payment and little or no problem behaviors) and the exact term seems to take care of itself.

It's important to figure out what your business strategy is, and what your value-add proposition is.I know that folks have been successful in each one of these niches in Philly real estate, just depends on what you are looking to do (in no particular order and just off the top of my head, I'm sure that I'm leaving a bunch out): low-income rentals, luxury rentals, flips, vacant land speculation, new construction, section 8/PHA rentals, wholesaling, wholetailing, bird dogging, turn key sales, property management, construction management, financing expert, zoning expert, title expert, business procedure consulting, hard money lending, seller financing, buying subject-to, syndicating deals, 1031 exchange scout, retail sales, etc.Personally, I've set up a pretty decent rental portfolio over the last few years, that's what made sense for my investing goals and setup. 

... do you prefer to prorate the 1st mo rent or change the due date?