And from the first time we entered the bedroom in that apartment one of my kids said 'why is it so cold in here? 

You really need to do your homework to make sure that you have these 3 keys covered if you are going to be what I call a turnkey owner.Good luck to you.Keith

At the end of the day the point of doing this is to leave something behind for my kids!!

I was single, no kids, had a stable job, and had the rest of the 401k as a backstop; so, not much risk (plus, I was clueless back then and likely did not think about these things).

My wife and I are sadly divorcing but we're keeping it civil for our kids.

Quick list for you.Pros:- Co-sign from the parents to secure rent so the kids don't blow it each month- More money per unit by renting by the room, even if in a group, than by renting to a family- Options to rent to adjunct faculty and/or graduate students instead of undergraduate students- Less expectations.

I was more thinking of the potential complexity of 3 sets of parents, 3 college kids and 2 dogs versus 1 couple

This method requires a lot more homework into projects coming to a community, potential setbacks, community support, and municipal investment that coincides with projects coming to an area. a few things I did, in particular; I used a private mortgage broker, I used a long standing top quality home inspector, offered additional financial incentives to be very picky with the properties I sent them to so I could use their findings to bargain down deals or get sellers to eat the cost to fix certain things, saving my lots of time and money in the long run. set my mortgage payments to be bi-weekly, which gives you almost 1 month of extra payments per year as opposed to monthly, and it pays down your interest quicker.

She's sick and I'm going to treat her with kid gloves, but I also can't run my business to suit her illness.

One of the things I learned from my first trips years ago is to make sure that I'm well prepared in advance and have done my homework to make the most of it.