@Jay Hinrichs --That's a good point, I could act as the agent in these cases, and earn a commission, But what I am really looking for is my own experience in addition to the money.  

The pros far outweigh the cons, which include:Safer living & health conditions for tenantsA peace of mind for you as owner & for tenantsWhich can then in turn directly or indirectly, depending on your perspective & outcome, reduce vacany rates

Glad to see another addition to the Cincinnati investors.

The additional factors that are at play here is I still have 1.5 years to be able to get FHA loan or 2.5 years for a conventional due to a short sale of my primary residence way before I started pursuing REI this past April.

You might also have marketing expenses with turnover, in addition to vacancy.Jim.

It could be either a coop or a condo - in a coop you own shares in the buildings corporation that entitle you to occupy a specific unit, in a condo you own the physical space. they'll have either maintenance fees or HOA fees as an additional expense, and these can go up whenever the board voted on them.

Are there advantages to putting more down, or is it just reducing the risk involved for that property?

If you feel like getting creative, I would love to trade some labor (drive for dollars, fill out/deliver marketing materials, clean and landscape, any other chores you'd rather someone else handle) for reduced rent.Thanks everyone, looking forward to getting out and getting involved.Ryan

I plan to do work on the house in several rooms during that year, but it would be nice to have the additional income to offset costs from renting a room or two. 

I am looking at renting the master suite out and stumbled across someone interested in renting a room part time so might also rent an additional room like that to them if we can figure out a price that works.Then I ran across a FSBO in a great rental area...