From time to time tenants will be late on rent, if they're quality tenants they'll happily pay the late fees and move on.

@Patrick Martone, Atlanta and its many surrounding areas still has a lot (may be a stretch) of multi family inventory that generates quality cash flow.

Of course its just one part of the marketing process, you still have to do other marketing to drive quality traffic to your site. 

I have a burning desire to get started with rentals but I don't quite have capital to pay 20% on something of quality.

@Chris VanDenBerg   There is a huge shortage of quality contractors in the Dallas area. 

Reserves are going to be a bit of an issue because even a bank will want to see healthy reserves in determining whether or not you can quality for the loan.

Excellent job, BTW ... because you did so well on it, you now almost have too many choices, which is a very high quality problem to have :)

The direct to sponsor model that bypasses a layer of fees tends to attract higher quality folks.  

Our property is in a good school district and a decent neighborhood, so I believe we can attract quality tenants otherwise.We've considered the idea of putting of fencing down the middle of the back yard or something similar.

The cheaper $100k property might be in a less appealing area with a lower quality of tenants, and high tenant turnover or missed rent payments could affect your ROI outlook.Personally, regarding the situation above, I would take the deal that is a little less ROI, but gives you better security on your investment.