Then reality shows its ugly face. 

I was thinking of parking some funds in a NNN property that barely breaks even after the mortgage. 

The dilemma I face with a 5% downpayment on future projects is that the mortgage would be high, and when it comes time to rent that thing a year later, it will not cover it's own cost (which is scary to me).

Lots of investors to chat with face to face to ask for personal recommendations.

Agents are doing the bare minimum these days. 

Alicia,I was just about to post a question, I am facing the same questions right now.If it is the rental properties the side yard facing the major street is the deal breaker or no?

I'll definitely start looking for some meetups to attend and get some face-to-face interactions going as well.

I throw this in ANYONE's face, that claims "it works", and all I get is complete ignore of everything I stated and the response is: "I promise", or "I guarantee" without a single shred of basis, proof or evidence supporting their "guarantee".

Some of the big ones I've heard are things like having a great tenant portal for handling maintenance requests and rental applications, quick response times when dealing with tenant follow up, showing face at the property or at least routine drive by checks and a reliable maintenance team to handle property repair and upkeep.

Was faced with either patching up old bathroom plumbing/tile walls vs updating the entire bathroom(which allowed me to update plumbing for 2 other bathrooms too).