For my long term holds, I prefer a 30 yr mortgage with lower rates as I want to lock in long term on that. 

On the other hand, if it's totally within my rights to keep the whole deposit, given they are breaking a 12-month lease after 1 month and that I've done everything in my power to address their issues in a timely manner, that would be preferable.

You could scale into a larger deal, get a preferred return with a lower risk profile, and possibly get bonus depreciation the first year as well.

Now, that home sold for $1.7M after holding it for 6 years.At this point in my life, I would probably prefer dependable cash flow and more passive so it's why I don't mind investing out of state even though I know Orange County, CA like the back of my hand and have a real estate license so that helps quite a bit.

I don’t want to run around the entire state to look at house and would like to narrow down to just a few zip codes…  I prefer to start in Maryland because I live here… I am seeing tons of stuff in Baltimore city for sale and that actually makes me worry a little.. can they not rent or do some people only want to flip houses?  

But if you have one you prefer you can always ask, just not force.  

Preferable 3 Br, 2Bth. 

Combining all of your Personal policies and all of your Commercial policies is actually much more challenging from an underwriting standpoint than all of the commercials would lead you to believe.The reality is most Personal Lines underwriters would prefer that we do not place the rentals with the Home and Auto and put them with a different insurance carrier. 

What is everyone preference regarding having the option to own a handful of properties out right verses having a much larger portfolio with the debt that comes with it?

I prefer to spend my time either working to grow my RE business of doing family stuff.