Seriously, I've had such a hard time getting financed (with NO money in bank) that the idea of having something to show mr. whale down @ Hand-in-your-pocket national bank and loan, just makes me jump for pure joy.

If you are just purely sub-leasing it for the rest of your lease term, then in theory the new tenant will pay you and then you would continue to pay the property manager your current rate.  

Pure and simple.

If anyone wants to buy for appreciation - that's fine, but just realize that this is pure speculation.

We have 3 personal turned rentals and 2 pure rentals with another 2 houses (1 personal/1 rental) budgeted in the next 10 months.  

We got started through personal properties turn rentals and buying pure rentals. 

We were able to retire early, in large part, due to real estate investments (our own single family homes) along the way; however, we've never purchased a property purely for investment.  

That is pure speculation.  

My needs are nothing fancy, I work in science for my day job and the real estate is purely a side interest (along with stocks) but I am passionate about investing.

That's purely your judgement.Good luck!