Look to the future for what "ifs" like fixing shower tile or going with surround or corian sheet where future cost can be controlled and no emergency thinking needed.

Do you have a different cash emergency fund?  

I keep a large emergency fund in savings, and the interest it has earned in the last 2 years (0.75%) doesn't even keep up with inflation.

Would the best plan be to take all of the rental payment and put it towards mortgage (after saving a set amount for repair emergencies and or vacancies of course) so we can pay them off more quickly and have retirement monies at 65?

or even focus on higher end SFRs as your stategy in emerging real estate markets?

Hi Jackie,Yes there is certainly opportunity in Central America and other emerging markets!

Just to use myself as an example,  I am a very busy physician,  I have surgeries, I have emergency room calls, I have patients in the hospital, I see 35 patients a day in my office, I work about 12 hours a day...

Now overlay that reality onto facts like 40% of the population can not handle a $400 expense and 23% of the population has no emergency fund at all.Simply put, only a small percentage of the population has the requirements to succeed. 

I really like the emerging areas in Dayton proper where you can still get solidly built distressed properties from the 1920s, 1950s, and 1960s that can be turned into really nice littler homes.

Sometimes emergencies come up.