Investing in (The city of) Henderson, North Carolina

[John Cole]

My girlfriend and I are going to invest in real estate. We are trying to figure out where we should invest, our niche I suppose. The Henderson, NC demographic is very low income (majority income <20,000/yr) along with high unemployment compared to national average and higher crime compared to national average. The good news is over 60% of people seem to rent here, good for a landlord I suppose. My question is this, in such a market how do you invest in rental properties and not become a slumlord? Should I invest in class C/D locations and just expect and plan for my investments to need more repairs? Should I invest in better locations even though a majority of the population here doesn't appears to have the means to afford Class A/B homes? Median rent is 400/month, are those the houses I should be investing in? Perhaps I am just having "analysis paralysis." After reading multiple investing books I see that good tenants make an investment more passive, and investing in class A/B neighborhoods attracts the right tenants along with good screening. Should I just stick with this plan? Any help would be great, especially if someone has experience in Henderson, NC or very low income areas. 

Thank you, 

John Cole

(I got my information from City-data.com)