Get to know the area and find the sweet spot where rents are the highest per dollar spent on the property and gives you a healthy cash flow. 15% or higher. 

We are a economically healthy, mid-sized cities, with high percentage of Fortune 500 companies. 

.: Quote from @Timothy Hero: When rates were low 3's, they said any day a crash was coming.When rates jumped to 8%, they said any day a crash was coming.During both markets, the foreclosure rates and prices remained healthy and strong in most markets.Inflation has come down, 9/10 markets are up YTD in prices, and rates have come down from 8% to upper 6's. 

They have the clout and the lobbying power to sway congress just as monsanto buys off politicians to get their anti gmo labeling laws passed or big pharma suppresses any non drug unpatentable natural/organic preventon/cures as there's no profit in health.

Early 30s with a healthy compensation, with great credit score and savings, well done.

We also have healthy IRA's and will both qualify for social security in the future.After being a landlord for nearly 25 years,  I'm thinking about selling it all and moving the money into immediate income annuites or some other fix income vehicle so we can travel and live a less stressful lifestyle.There doesn't seem to be an easy way to avoid capital gains and I realize many of these fixed income investments don't hedge against inflation. 

And that's why it's important to keep healthy reserves.

So if you have need for a liquid emergency fund for your health, I don’t think you should play with that portion by buying properties. 

Rather than entering and exiting based on market timing, I prefer to change an investment focus/strategy depending where I think the investment cycle is.Per Wells-Fargo analysis tomorow, the future is Fed 2/5 Notes yield around 4% so 50-70bps lower than today and it would not be like in the previous 40 years where there would be a huge spike down "reverse V".So if we assume the Fed Note at 4.25% and healthy spread is 200bps, we expect the Commercial Rate Note to settle at 5.7-6.75% in the long run.Having said that, if cap rate settles at 6.5-7.0 that's a pretty healthy spread, so I expect the valuation to down 50 to 100 bps from today.I see lot of "funds" level syndication these days, almost none of them running in healthy financial metrics.

People, even in this economy, would give you a healthy penny for it.