Taking your insurance, mortgage, tax, and rent estimates at face value (I assume that these are fairly certain/stable), you might be a bit optimistic on your expenses:- Vacancy: I don't know if 2% is the right number or not, but just to sense check - 2% vacancy means that you have no more than 1 week (on average) to turn over a unit, assuming it's fully occupied and each unit turns over once a year.

The job is pretty stable but it is always a possibility.

Notice how unsuccessful real estate investors all have one thing in common: they weren't selective enough in their deals and decided to enter into very marginal or worse deals.If you could be just 0.1% as selective in real estate as a typical 21 year old girl is with dating, either on Tinder or some dating website looking for a hot looking Chad or Brad that isn't psychopathic, and that looks financially stable and reasonable, then you will succeed in the game of real estate.

If that's the only purpose, get one off the shelf/online.

I've made my share of mistakes because I did not consider #2, I was attracted to Binghamton NY a few years back because of the high Cap rate but poor property management and my lack of visiting the area cost me a lot of money.At this stage in my life i'm so what financially stable that I can make the time to drive or fly to visit and manage the managers of remote properties.  

I have been fortunate enough to have a stable well paying job for the 6 years and have been able to save up a good amount of capitol to fund the initial down payment on a multi-family rental property.

@Andrew Lee if you lever the $250k into commercial you should easily to be able to find a stable cash flowing multifamily in the Memphis area.

Vivian:You are in a good position, with your license and bilingual ability.Spanish is important in California.You can find the needs of Spanish speaking population in your area and there must be opportunities.One area I think that has been overlooked is the lack of financing opportunities for immigrants who has stable incomes but not much credit history, many of them speaks Spanish only.Ironically, many of them are paying rents 1500-2500/ month, but not able to find loans to buy a 50k - 100 k house, or condo, or mobile home.

this one I think is less risky simply because we have national buyers and there are NO lots in the entire town and nothing on the planning shelf ahead of us..

I currently have a commercial property on the East Side of Providence, RI that would be ideal for a 1031-Like Kind Exchange buyer. 9-Unit mixed-used building, fully rented with stable businesses in commercial spaces.