Invest smartly, realize the risks, plan for as much as you can, and feel good about it.

But generally, smart investors watch the bottom line.It sounds like you really miss the experience of being a homeowner who has complete control over his domicile. 

What If prefer not to live there - is there s smart solution?

With smart leverage, you can acquire more units sooner, which should translate to higher positive cashflow.

@Chris Thomas We ask ourselves the same question all the time... but at the end of the day we are pretty conservative people and have seen many people in our lives lose it all (including my parents while I was a teen) so we really don't think its smart for us personally to put all our eggs in one basket.

@Jesse Fernandez, It's a smart question, and it's the essence of the balancing act you have to decide on as an MF investor.

In my opinion there's a lot of ways to grow and many of them are safe if you're smart about it. 

We discuss the considerations when investing out-of-state.I think you're making smart moves by building strong local relationships, as a key step in your process.

Which would be the smart move for me a Franchise or Indie Firm?

He's a smart guy.