San Antonio is known for its relatively lower cost of living compared to many other major cities in Texas.

Single family homes have the benefit of the tenant paying all utilities, taking care of all landscaping/snow, and lower cost replacement when things go wrong (a roof on a single family home is a lot less then on a large multi).

However, with overall sales activity still strong, competition can persist, so be prepared to act quickly on properties you love.The good news for most of my buyers is the market pivot towards buyer's seems to let us negotiate more.

I would ask the lender you applied with to disclose how they calculated your DTI... sometimes they fail to add back in depreciation or deduct costs from your schedule E like tenant turnover, improvements, etc. that shouldn't be included in the DTI calculation. 

When you sell the property and gain the difference between the sale price and the cost to you, that's profit.Net profit to you on a rental is the cash flow. 

I've seen a lot of Allstate rental properties with ACV or market value coverage rather than Replacement cost and other tricks to reduce coverage levels.  

They cost 25k each on average and so far they’ve been easy to self manage out of state.

If it’s a safety issue, I’ll of course make sure the premises are as safe as they were before any required maintenance was done, but she is now suggesting that if I don’t reimburse her for those specific anchors, I am violating fair housing laws for familial status and/or tenants rights regarding not incurring costs for required repairs.

Your ONLY cost in a rental is the cash you come up with. 

While it is mainly used for short-term rentals, it may give you some analytics about specific markets such as investability, rental demand, competition, etc.