San Marcos: Employment rate and renter occupied % is very good, they have the outlet mall, and couple of attractions tooI'm not sure if I should consider any more data points to fix on a city. 

This puts you in a much better financial position when unexpected expenses come up. 

If it sounds too good to be true, it not only will scare off investors who know what they are doing (and tend to have deeper pockets), it might set you up for failure, if something unexpected happens and you can't perform.  

this was not a scheduled outage, the tenant put in a maintenance request because her fridge outlet lost power, and her lights got dim, she turned the breaker box off and it wouldn’t turn back on.

All you need is a ladder, cordless drill, and an available outlet to run one.

If you are only cashflowing a couple of thousand a year, one significant unexpected expense can put you in the red. 

You will always find something unexpected in a renovation or build, driving up your renovation and holding costs.

I still believe that RE is the way to go...stock market is down and you are not assured if you'll get more profits in the coming years.business is also not so good during these years, as i have observed, more and more businesses are losing because of high costs of material and labor.RE - the value of the land will never depreciate, not unless it is beside a body of water which can be submerged by turbulent and unexpected events, which is likely not to take place. :)So from the three investment said, I'd still say that it's the Real Estate investment is the best option.

Typically, one circuit will provide power to all/most of the ceiling lights per floor, while multiple separate circuits will power parts of several room's outlets.

 @Nathan Gesner is right, you always have to have money for the unexpected and even the expected things that happen.