I have one now that is too skinny for me and would like some advice on what else I could do.

Remember timid landlords have skinny kids.

(Still quite skinny even if true).

It's very "Apple-like" in terms of functionality which makes sense because the founder of Nest was a former Senior President at Apple and played a role in iPod and iPhone development.

When given the choice between building an apartment and a townhome/rowhomes/skinny, I think it is way safer to not build the apartment right now.

There are now family with kids on the block, and hipsters in skinny jeans smoking on their porches.

Just don't get yourself into skinny deals and you should be ok. 

We don't currently do anything in TX, so I can't answer that question for you, but you can make that call and get the skinny.

Looks like you need to add Property Management to your calculations - this is always good to add even if you PM the property as your time is worth something and in the future you might want to move it to PM and then you would need to be able to account for this 10%+ cost which would bring this to a breakeven cash flow proposition(equity gain from principal paydown and potential appreciation value increase notwithstanding - which might be a big factor in SF) which then you need to cover repairs for the property which might be where the $350/mo comes from.Seems like a skinny deal at <1% rent/mo vs.

Some areas there are still plenty of deals not quite as good as 8 years ago but you can get deals.I do some work in Vegas and that is one of the hot markets on the lower end for sure.I like Davids thought process of getting your license ... this gets you in the game and helps you in many ways.. most of the folks I fund around the US have one thing in common.. they are RE agents or brokers.. so they have instant access to MLS.. they know values very well and can't be BS by some wholesaler who is puffing numbers.. etc etc.Also when deals get skinny your only paying a selling side on commish and you can capture a commish when you buy  those numbers many times add up to profit as opposed to breaking even or a loss.