However the lease must have in it specifically how the billing will occur. 

Injuries occur and insurance denies your claims.

So even a bad cash flow deal has a silver lining if you have enough cash from somewhere else in order to weather the storms that will occur (I only had a $350 mortgage which was easy to maintain with or without a tenant-if you are going to take on PITI of $800 or more, you may want to really consider wether or not you would be able to withstand 6 months of no rent for whatever reason).

That's about a $600k property at 3% interest, and most of what I'm seeing is listed for over a million.Ideas that have occurred to me:1. buying land on a river (expensive but cheaper without a house), and then waiting for construction costs to decline and then building a small home with the ability to expand square footage over time as we need it.2.

Instead, the opposite occurred.

This is a little out side of the box, but it occurred to me as I recalled a story I had from a teacher in elementary school who was from the Soviet Union (not to just give away age totally, but say post Cold War).

New home sales occurred at a seasonally-adjusted, annual rate of 959,000, the U.S.

But "going belly up" I do not predict will occur. 

If that were to occur you would be forced to deal with it ASAP and not necessarily be able to choose the best option.So back to reality; what is the best option that you could choose and would be viable without them paying rent and with them needing local specific care from you?

I strongly encourage you to participate in local meetups if they are still occurring around you.