Addressing the problems is like trying to put out small individual fires in a forest that is burning.

@Eric Nguyen after getting burned by a VRBO guest that stole TV's and then disputed their credit card payment and won - we created & used a 3 page mini-lease for ALL guests and required they email us copy of their driver's license. 

If you get burned on your first transaction, you will leave the gene pool.

I felt like I had lost my momentum, but really I had burned myself out and needed to take a break.

had to change out one ottomon that got a burn mark on it.. but with 5k dollar deposit we require we just took 500 and bought a new one.. different tenant all together plus we charge a one time cleaning fee of 500.00 which covers the maid service coming in and doing a full detail job on the unit.. sure beats the heck out of normal rentals were the tenants beat the crap out of the places LOL

Who knows when the blower motor in the HVAC will burn up or if a kid mowing the lawn hit the condenser hard enough to crack a joint in the line, pressure drops and causes damage?

Do a serious dive into research and reading for a few months, but burn it into your brain: Take.

@Carol Burns. 

Burns.

Yes, we needed to pay PMI on both - but they both burned off within two years after reappraisals and the cash flow got stronger.The cash flow and equity from those two houses allowed us to actually make the forward progress on our investment goals that we likely never would have accomplished without them.Also, it sounds like you may have left your job already - but if not and you want to buy your own 1-4 family, do it now.