Baby boomers and millennials, each at distinct life stages, are converging on the market with different needs and financial strategies, shaping the housing landscape with their preferences and purchasing power.Baby Boomers: In Search of Sun, Savings, and SerenityBaby boomers are charting a course toward warmer climates and tax-friendly havens as they approach retirement.

Your income is adequate for this price range, but remember that mortgage approval also depends on your credit score, debt-to-income ratio, and other financial commitments.With a $20,000 down payment, you'll be putting down less than 5% of the home's value, which may require you to pay for private mortgage insurance (PMI) until you've reached 20% equity.

I'm looking to position myself to have maximum purchase power in the future -  In essence, I'd like to be able to have lines of credit to be a little real estate fix/flip fix/hold type of person/company.I have great credit, good income, good numbers on bank-statements and have multiple properties paid off and available for collateral.  

Hindsight is of course 20/20 and I regret all of those excuses, but the second best time to plant a tree is now, so I'm pulling the trigger, market timing, shmarket timing.I'm in the process of selling some inherited hunting property to a family friend to fund down payments on my first few rental property investments, perhaps looking to 1031 if possible for tax savings.

Everyone else is only transaction based and they can take their commission and disappear.Your PMC has to manage your property EVERY day until you terminate them or sell.A good PMC will have connections to agents that our investors themselves, lenders, title companies, inspectors, etc.Of course, you can screw it all up by only looking for the cheapest PMC!

@Larry Landry most landlord leases state that appliances are as-is & where-is, so they don't have to repair them or remove & store them.Of course, for a great tenant, or to negotiate a lease renewal, you can also volunteer to address a repair issue:)Instead of spending the money upfront and finding out the W/D doesn't make a difference, just put in your ad, "W/D negotiable dependent on tenant qualifications and lease length".

My leases require 660 credit score or better. 

I'm of course no expert now but I certainly am happy to have learned valuable lessons by doing the project. 

Some Assessor offices will only use comps within a certain time period prior to the effective date and will not even consider a perfect comp which sold 1 day after, and some assessors will consider sales within a limited time period after the effective date.And of course, all this is contingent on if you are still within the appeal period. 

I credit it all to pulling the trigger on that first deal, punching fear in the face and doing something most people never have the courage to do.Some questions you should consider and know the answers to before deciding whether this deal will make a good house hack for you are (1) is it in a safe neighborhood?