I am unsure if they are a good investment, but I am leaning towards yes, I don't have anyone around me to ask so I decided to come here.House 1. rents for $825/m the loan will cost me $13,000 as a down payment and $6,000 closing costs, and should cash flow approx $275/m after mortgage payment are made.House 2. rents for $600/m the loan will cost me $13,000 as a down payment and $6,000 closing costs, and should cash flow approx $50/m after mortgage payment are made. 

I am very eager to start taking action and learning but live in a high cost of living market (Boston) currently and for several reasons (need to save more, move to lower cost of living place etc.) will not be able to start for at least 1.5 years. 

How much will it cost to get me the licenses?

If not, do you know someone that can manage it for you and is there enough money available to cover their costs?

I have almost 400 units and we average about 40% turnover per year.Based on personal experience and networking with thousands of investors and property managers for the last 15 years, tenants tend to stay longer when they are (a) way below market rates, or (b) poorly supervised.

@Lucas Carl, When you talk about your cabin with a purchase price of $500k, I'm assuming a 25% down payment + any costs to furnish/fix/renovate as the initial cash outlay (for example $150k total). 

There are a few reasons for this: 1) They are costly and the Exchange intermediary may require a whole host of inspections including environmental reports etc and 2) One has to come up with the cash to buy the new property without getting the equity out of the first property - not everyone can do that - add in having to get a loan while still being obligated to the loan on the “sale” property.

Negatives are that there is an additional cost for me and if the tenant doesn't pay the water bill, i would end up with a potentially large bill at some point. 

The bad thing about these issues is they are costly.

Surprisingly I think I like the SFR, (lower maintenance costs and tenant interactions per cash flow dollars).