NOI, and by extension the cap rate allows people to compare 2 different assets.The amount of leverage an investor uses, and the rate at which he borrows, and the length of time they have to pay back that debt are completely independent factors from the asset.

Want to ensure there are not super aggressive rent growth, operating expense, exit cap figures.Having an attorney look over the docs is never a bad idea. 

Look around these boards-- frauds popping up daily, misleading advertisements, posts about acquiring X amount of houses at Y cap rates only to be truly just wholesaling them, columbus cartel swarming, etc.

I do like the Roth but it self-limits with small annual caps. 

A lot of these are nightmares with crap tenants and old high cap/ex houses. 

Is there a rental cap?

Finally, two other things that you can look into or talk with your CPA to see if there could be any advantages to you (you may be phased out due to income for some) is the Section 199A pass-through deduction, which would require you to start tracking hours spent on your real estate enterprise, as well as the possible CA SALT tax workaround in case you were interested in deducting more than the $10k state and local tax cap for the next few years.If you need referrals for professionals in any of these areas in the San Diego area, feel free to reach out. 

Also, the rental was 1031, so I would have to pay taxes and cap gains right?

Strong Financial Returns: With typical CAP rates around 9%, and an average cost of approximately $530,000 for a three-bedroom, two-bath fourplex, investors can expect an annual income of over $60,000.

@Dan Rivera  Your analysis does not account for the challenges the lower tier real estate (Cobbs  Creek as an example) has absorbing expenses and cap ex.