You mentioned you purchased directly through a seller so I am guessing no agent was involved?

The reason why American business (this includes real estate businesses) have returned, on average, higher returns is because of the risk involved.

They also have a monthly meeting for the real estate investors group here in Gainesville so you may want to check them out to see if that might be a good fit.

It will be a project that involves some $$ investments.

My opinion is that it is all up to you and how involved you want to be.

There is not going to be any one size fits all CAP rate, occupancy rate, supply/demand equilibrium, etc.

I don't want to carry a note forever (love the idea of the income, but I need the cash for other projects), but I'm willing to do it for a year or two.This seems like a puzzle to me - all the pieces are on the table, I just can't see how to fit them all together to complete the task.

Research which have the highest rates of homeownership (vs rental) and the average home values that fit your program.

Now that you have achieved the goal of paying down debt you can leverage your good credit to obtain either personal lines of credit or if you have equity in your personal home you may leverage that as down payment money on a acquisition loan or use that to purchase low costing investment property, depending on what market(s) you are looking to invest in.I've personally was in your same position and used personal loans to outright buy investment properties in various markets and I wish I would have known about lines of credit prior to getting involved with loans.

I made the mistake earlier of choosing a structure first, then trying to fit what I was doing into it - no bueno.