My wife stays home with our 2 kids and is unable to work.

You have demonstrable savings ability and discipline.

We may have to move out of SF but would like to avoid that if we can.I've considered the following:1) Stay in our current 2bed/2bath as long as possible (likely 5 years max) or until the market softens2) Sell now, rent in SF, avoid taxes and free up gains for other investments and wait for a market to soften in SF or move out of the city in a couple of years if it doesn't.3) We'd love to keep current home as rental after buying new home.

Also, your average property manager tends to stay away from this group.Then for your numbers:-The cash on cash is pretty good-I would verify the dumpster, water & electricity via actual statements.

Greetings,I first want to stay how much of a good online community this site is honestly!

I have 0 experience in these smaller markets but definitely will be interesting to see why they have stayed so darn cheap in relation to the bigger one and how would they behave from a cash flow perspective in a “stress” situation.

The theory is that you get a job for the pay check and you stay for the pension.

Don't go chasing cash flow into the rough neighborhoods, especially investing from out of state (unless you have an amazing local team) Personal suggestion would be to stay away from anything in 206, 208, 212, and 216.

A lot of GC's prefer to stay close to home ie. up in Lake Norman, or just south charlotte etc. 

The idea is for you to develop your team, solid set of relationships and maintain discipline (critical, even though it's very hard to do IRL).