[wepple]

My understanding of rental properties is that you want to optimize for low costs and low maintenance, low taxes, and maximum rental yield. Those are absolutely not the things I look for in a permanent home. They might happen accidentally, but generally not.

[mousethatroared]

If your first home is a condo then it's not so hard.

When my wife got pregnant we were looking to move to a nicer condo. Rent was so high that an equivalent condo's mortgage payments were lower.

We had the down payment saved up so it was a no-brainer.

[therealdrag0]

I know a lot of people who have extra property they own to rent. Mostly it’s about diversification and believing that appreciation of the asset will ensure profitability even if the margins from taxes and rents is low.