Investing in middle America

[Ed Lopez]

I've really just dabbled with SFH rental properties in the past but am now looking at making more significant moves with a goal to be done with my 9-5 job in 6 years.

I started looking at smaller town properties in Kentucky, Illinois etc mostly because the buy in was reasonable and I could at least get proof of concept without too much risk.  

I'm ready to make some purchases but had a slight hesitation. A fair number of these deals seem to cash flow exceptionally. To the point if you are paying cash you could have a 100% ROI in 5 years or less. I understand the property values In these areas will probably not increase much overtime, but I feel like I'm missing something.

I always wonder why people would rent instead of buying when the rents are so much higher than a mortgage.  Mind you, I’m from a California market where the complete opposite is true.  You rarely if ever meet the 1% rule however my last property literally doubled in value over the last 5 years.  

Some of these investments just gave me pause because they seemed to be too good to be true from a cash flow standpoint.  

Thoughts? Opinions? 

Thanks.