Could you rent out the whole property for ~$1600/mo? If you're renting it out, then there's no sense in making payments greater than the minimum assuming a 30-yr/fixed mortgage.

As far as the apartments, amazing. Something like the 1 bdr floorplans on the site would rent for $1500-3500/mo in Manhattan, depending on the area, with not so many amenities either. Not that that entices me to move to Kansas

I've seen quite a few properties that would make 7% or more profit on cash investment, but maybe that's because I'm actively looking to invest at the moment and have learned to actively ignore the ones whose rates of return will suck.

Lastly, most "buy vs rent" comparos are screwy, because they compare median rents vs median purchase prices in a given city (often for a given # of bedrooms). A better method would be to take a random sample of individual properties that have been both sold and rented in the preceding year, and average the % cash rate of returns. The first method is stupid because rental properties are often of poorer quality/lower end than those for sale.