Does anyone buy a house at market price of MLS for a rental?

[Ida Powers]

I live in Columbus, Ohio and I am thinking of buying a house that I would live in for a couple years then rent out when I move out west. I have close family in Columbus so I will be traveling back to Columbus a few times a year to check on the house. So what I'm curious about is, does anyone buy houses of the MLS at market price to rent out? The areas I'm looking at are limited around columbus because my job is way in country and I don't want to add a crazy amount to my commute so the area I want to buy is nice and has great schools but its very uncommon to find forclosures or below market price houses. Would it be a bad idea just to find a normal at market priced house on the MLS to live in currently and then rent out? I'm estimating my mortgage would be about $1100-$1200 and I would be able to rent out a house in this market for $1400-$1600 depending on size etc. of the house I find. I've been trying to look forclosures or cheaper houses but they all seem to be in areas that I would not want to live in and would attract less than desirable tenants.

[JD Martin]

If you mean "asking price" when you say "market price", you probably can't make those numbers work. If you have a $1200 mortgage and rent the house for $1500 you are going to be losing money when you take vacancy, repairs, management and capital expenses into account. 

Primary homes usually make mediocre or poor investments. You have to find the value available in the house, whether that's a great house at an insane low price, a beat up home you can rehab and add value to, something that is in between that could be reconfigured or added on, etc.