Single units and even multi family have pros and cons and what it will come down to every time is the numbers.

I respect everyone's business structure.As far as local or out of state: I think there are pros and con's for both.  

Some of the most prolific Pros, that might see the best networking results, are folks like yourself that have many posts, are "Top Contributors" (congrats on being a Top guy in this forum category, by the way!)

Your list of Pros are definitely spot on.

As another newbie I so appreciate all the information presented by the Pros!  

The pros of this I see are:- I'd keep just one mortgage as oppose to two if I found a deal with conventional financing. - I'd benefit from primary residence financing, such as reduced interest rates. - I can use a large portion of the rental income to pay down my residency mortgage.- I'd have no mortgage on my first RE investment!

I get information overload but seriously, step back and look at some of those niches that you've read about and think what are the pros and cons of each strategy.  

What are the pros/cons of such a large DP? 

Pros and cons of each?

Mortgage route - Pros - better interest rate, fixed rateCons- eventually hit a limit of mortgages to obtain, hassle of qualifying for mortgage, requirement of reservesLine OC credit route-Pros - only pay amount you have out of LOC, less hassle to get, don't think their limits on number of line of credits.