This is amazing to hear and is a big boost of encouragement.

Macro issues seem to be a huge mental hurdle for a lot of investors but that is largely out of our hands. 

In my opinion, you should steer clear from buying a property with existing tenants... its not always easy to remove them and can be emotionally and mentally taxing but if you have to buy with tenants your first property and its a good deal then it may be worth it.

But, I think this is a big risk...you definitely have the herd mentality chasing MF. 

All your capex goes into that bucket too.We sometimes keep some of the landscaping work until next spring, this way we can expense it in the current tax year - as opposed to spreading it out over 27.5.I am also not a huge fan of cost segregation for the same reason, which is popular amongst some MF investors, because while it boosts your short term write offs, it kind of forces you down the 1031 path so you can keep kicking the tax can down the road.

I would hate to see your high-earning W2 suffer due to real estate whether that's time or mental distraction.I would focus on staying in the game with the high income W2 as long as possible, keep those expenses low, throw your added money into index funds, and see about doing real estate when you start pulling back from the W2.

It also boosts the liability coverage on the property. 

Most of my tenants have been with me 3-4 years.I'd explore self-showing options with smart locks, but in the Detroit market that's not really an option given the prevalence of security doors.At this point I'm not wasting mental energy trying to figure it out until I have to.

Another benefit is to take the mental legwork out of repetitive tasks.

Good luck finding a judge or an IRS agent who will follow your mental gymnastics here.