No deals for small apartments except low income or small town

[Ani Nambula]

Hello folks,

Reading blogs on this forum is better than any books I can read. I am getting addicted. I have a question for you today.

For last six months, I have been looking for small apartment deals (20 to 50 units) in Virginia (VA is my home). All I can find in the market are low income property or property in small towns. All others are highly priced with no value add opportunity. Based on what I read on the forums here, both are not recommended for a beginner. Since I have a full time job, I anyway wanted to engage a management company (and also be actively involved on the value add side).

If I were to buy a LI property and engage a PM who has experience with low income properties, do you think, I can mitigate some risk? The problem with small town property is that the employment is dependent on one or two big employers. Any thoughts or suggestions on either of them?