They keep rent low, give gifts and homemade cookies for Christmas, make upgrades whenever the tenant requests,  accept all the late rent excuses, etc.The truth is, your tenant is not your friend.

If I have the time after dinner to run to Lowe’s , and deliver material at 10pm, I didn’t have to ask if that’s ok.

Those rates would be low in my area by half .I do service work , the clock starts ticking when the truck leaves the shop and doesnt stop until the truck and men return .

Renting to only Section 8 now is possibly the best course of action if the rent you are willing to sale is low enough.

High demand and still relatively low entry costs. 

In what cases can you put down as low as 3%?

It’s just more than I can afford, and I don’t want to offend you with a low offer.”

My expertise is property management & I could help you with how to choose the right property management company, but it appears you are planning on self-managing.

@Collin Hays My favorite that came in at 6am one morning when the nights low temperature was 58 degrees and the high temperature was to be around 75 was the following.

. - There are very low management costs since the property has long term tenants that take care of their own repairs.