And financially we could all spend less.

Try to keep what you are involved in under your control and make sure its complete. 

If the work commute is more than 15 miles I think you'll experience higher than avg turnover rates, Jason.STeve in your area I would think the commute is more economic than say so cal  where folks spend an hour to drive 10 miles or less.. different dynamics.. were a 30 minute commute where you live could be 40 miles out.. 

However that is not always possible due to things that are out of our control. 

The reason I'm thinking about rental property is because I'd like to have more control over my retirement money than I do with it locked up with Betterment.

I would only pay the mortgage off with excess cash flow that was not needed for the running of the asset.. if your making a few hundred a month positive whats that going to do for you mine as well pay it down so you don't just spend the money on dinner closes starbucks etc. 

I'm at my highest and best....and can't spend 20K on a vinyl job.

You will spend months finding a new property, paying the closing fees, and reinvesting to buy another property and all this for maybe $5-8,000 worth.

Well, if you buy the note then of course you can control the time line, and hopefully at a discount.

You could spend $10,000 painting the house pink with blue polkadots, that doesn't mean the house is worth $10,k more, it might be worth $10k less after a paint job like that.