A 50 gal hot water tank is a SUFFICIENT tank!

I would also consider making sure the SFR has sufficient bathrooms (having private baths helps get you higher rents) and also big enough bedrooms (as many newer SFRs prioritize common areas over bedrooms, but bedrooms are more rentable).

@Nancy Stark if you do it as a package you could finance it. probably a 5 or 10 year arm 30 year AM balloon type product which you will have to go back and negotiate after 5 or 10 years. if you have sufficient money to put down  w2 income will not matter. 

If the cost of living rises at a 2% rate, in keeping with recent history, and your $120K houses fail to rise in value along with it (most "cheap" houses actually lose value over time), your $120,000 will not have sufficient buying power to fully fund your retirement costs.  

Wind is great most of the year in Texas - but obviously susceptible to cold weather, it's also an eyesore IMO, takes up vast amounts of land, much the same thoughts about Solar Farms.

With a 2-unit you avoid the FHA self-sufficiency test which kills most 3-4 unit deals here in Chicago.Probably more importantly you have to start with the end in mind. 

I’m still a newbie with one property but this should be sufficient unless your appliances and systems are on their last leg and you expect to replace soon.

Is it a “shotgun” approach where there is a vast array of owners or are you deep diving into a motivated “niche” list.

I have been getting around 40-50k in total rental income before expenses (plus 40-50k in W-2 income), and I was thinking I should balance my deductions out where I don't get slaughtered in unnecessary taxes, but my returns look sufficient to carry the loan foreword.

Underthe Fair Housing Act, a housing provider may request reliable documentation when an individualrequesting a reasonable accommodation has a disability and disability-related need for anaccommodation that are not obvious or otherwise known.35 In HUD’s experience, suchdocumentation from the internet is not, by itself, sufficient to reliably establish that an individual has a non-observable disability or disability-related need for an assistance animal.By contrast, many legitimate, licensed health care professionals deliver services remotely,including over the internet.