Stokes Jr 2 things... one, they know in a crisis situation, you're more likely to keep a roof over your own head paid than an investment, and second, because a majority of the mortgage industry plays to the tune of Fannie and Freddie, which would rather show gains in new home ownership over new millionaires made.

In the due diligence period - my awesome agent & partner Corby not only handled the 1031 but got me a free brand new roof on an insurance claim from previous hail damage prior to closing.

Where you run into problems is longer vacancy rates and repairs being a larger percentage of your gross rents (furnaces and roofs cost more or less the same on a 150k house and a 50k house) then if you were buying the same property in Marshall or Brookings 

It did have a new roof and furnace and the layout was nice and in a pretty good location. 

Roof looked like it needed to be replaced soon though.

My only thing with a multi-plex around the dfw area is that they tend to need a bit of rehab on top of the bigger down payment as you mentioned. 

House got a total overhaul of brand new paint, refinished flooring, completely gutted bathrooms, brand new roof, new electric panel, new granite, new appliances.

In this flip, we replaced the roof and electrical panel.

Roof was replaced a year prior to our purchase so no need to replace.

9.43.010 COMPATIBILITY IN RESIDENTIAL ZONESNo person shall construct any dwelling, accessory building, or structures, improvements, patio covers, roofs, balconies, decks, porches, terraces, exterior steps or stairways, walls, fences, antennas, spas, swimming pools, or make any additions to, or modify, any structure, or install a new roof on any structure, on any parcel in a residential zone in the City for which a building permit is required unless the resulting construction is found to be compatible with the neighborhood within which it is located.