I'm jealous of your market!

[Lee Haenschen]

I tend to do a lot more reading on this forum then posting. But from what I see I think the rental rates are quite a bit lower in our area then other places in this country. 

I live about 10 miles outside the outskirts of Charlotte NC. Not a small city at all but from the sale prices I've read on the forums V.S. what they are getting for rent is crazy! 

First off I don't own any properties YET. I've been antsy but want to get all the education I can before jumping in. The homes that im looking to invest in are 50-125K. The rent for an average $100K house is $650-850. Some on here are getting $1,200-1,350 for a 100K house! 

From all the numbers me and my wife have been generating it looks like our average cash flow from a rental would be in the ballpark of $80-200 tops. It is going to take us quite a few homes to get the $4,500 we need per month for her to quit her job. As depressing as that might be it is only lighting a deeper fire under my butt to get out and find better properties. My wife was reading that some on here are cash flowing over 1K per month on a SFH and wanted to know how this is possible? I told her that more then likely is not possible for our market and that we need to concentrate on which side of town we will invest in to get the best return.

We live in a rural area where rent is even cheaper, I'm considering concentrating our efforts closer to the city limits to keep rental rates up. 

On to my question. What tends to be a good driver of rental rates in everyone's market?  We have several colleges, large national factories, speedways, concert arenas, government agencies and all that any other large city would have. But what keeps our rental rates lower then what I'm finding elsewhere?