My thought process here is that the monthly payment would equal out at a certain point due to the seller carrying the mortgage they get their money either way (they get the high interest payments).

When you guys say expenses usually equal 50% of total rents, what does that all include?

There's a lot of threads on this:Gas: unit costs more, cheaper to operate, more likely to fail, less reliable (IMO).Electric: More expensive to operate, more reliable, easier install, no venting.For me, all things equal, me not paying the utilities, I would go with electric.

I will avoid rental assisted tenants to the extent I can, if there are market rate tenants equally qualified, they'll get the property.

Lots of positive scenarios come out of college.I can think of equally as many bad scenarios coming from no college, and a lot of them start with "Welcome to Mcdonalds, can I take your order" ?

Also look into the 50% rule... having Rent - PITI be positive does not necessarily make a long term cash flowing property.As Joel mentioned (btw, he's smart, good guy to listen to)... you don't need to concentrate so much on the price... buying 1 $300k property may very well be better than buying 6 $50k properties (actually, only having 1 set of closing costs almost guarantees it if everything else is equal).... you need to focus on the return on your investment.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy looking at your pretty face but 2 min. and 40 seconds is just too long.I might be interested in renting either of the two locations depending on the price or even trading for equal value in one of my condos in Cancun.

We have two goals 1) asset protection from lawsuits, and 2) ensuring ownership transfers from my parents to us assuming they die first (their other assets will be split equally among their kids).

GOI - PITI does not equal cash flow."

You should have a criteria list that you evaluate all applicants against equally.