I agree that diversification is important, as is family vacation time :) I think your numbers look pretty conservative, so potential for some upside perhaps and would imagine there are also tax depreciation benefits not factored. 

for the debate, why don't each of you imagine you have $50K to invest. 

I imagine we'll be receiving the mailed bills within the next week or so.As a reminder, you should review the 2nd installment bill to ensure the correct exemptions have been applied.Also, typically the bill for the first installment of the next year's bill is issued in December, and is due by March 1.

So you can imagine how much 45k is here, you can buy a nice house with that here, in some cities, not all.  

I truly feel if you can master that at your age you will be wildly successful beyond what you could currently even imagine. - that’s what I’d tell 19/20 yo me. 

I thought I could handle that city bc I went to college in Philly, and I couldn't possibly imagine anything being worse than the hoods around Temple, but boy was I wrong!!

Id imagine your state has one available and accessible as well.

I cannot imagine anything that would be more stressful to me than be responsible for other people's money.

I would imagine that it would work in the DFW area since that area is in such a housing demand.

@Andrew Jennings FreerksAllan mentioned $180/sft build cost in our market and that is correct for those finishes.I imagine in your area it will be much higher as you live in a very regulated market with tons of red tape for building homes.