I was hoping to be able to get the seller to pay the closing costs if I paid a little extra for the property. 

The residents of the area do not make enough money to charge rents approaching the mortgage and carrying costs of a middle to upper middle class home.  

That amount should be enough to pay first months deposit on a new place, some money for moving expenses, and maybe a little extra cuz you're nice.

BTW I like buy and hold investors much better as they typically can pay a bit more for property since they don't have to carry it vacant.

I'm going to evacuate my rental income after 1 year and see if the extra work is worth the return.

Acquisition phase, maintenance phase, disposition phase (if I'm remembering the terms for the 3 parts of the cycle correctly).If you're early on in career and looking to increase portfolio, should cash out and buy more with relatively high leverage (while being sure to have solid cash reserves on the side of course).If you're middle career and looking to just maintain portfolio and don't need cash flow from properties, then focusing on building equity in existing properties by using cash flow to pay down loans make sense.Then end career dispose of assets and the sweet equity you hopefully built up by selling outright or owner carry or whatever.I personally would cash out and buy more with leverage, but that's someone in acquisition mode bucket talking.

Despite all the things I could buy and put to good use, couldn't do it.But so many people out there will have no problems spending the extra $1k they have in their pocket.

Looking for a lease option or owner carry.

Before I made that decision, I was paying extra each month to pay down the principal.  

And that's besides the savings on carrying costs for the time saved.