Chattanooga too good to be true?

[Tyler Rodgers]

I am from Oregon, and have been looking to get started with buy and hold investing here. It's been pretty hard finding cash flow properties here, so my wife and I have been discussing the prospect of investing out of state. My brother in law lives in Chattanooga, so I started looking ok Zillow, rentometer, and Craigslist just to get a feel for the market. 

At a glance so far, it looks like Chattanooga blows my area out of the water in terms of rent/purchase price ratio. I'm seeing dozens of properties in the 2-4% range on the MLS. In Oregon, we are really struggling to even find 1%, so this area seems like a gold mine. I would have boots on the ground with my BIL to help as well.

My question is basically, what's the catch? Taxes and prices seem low, rents fairly high. Is there something I'm not aware of that I should be? Bad neighborhoods? Unfair tenant laws? I don't know, something? This seems too good to be true.

Also are there any recommendations for Realtors, property managers, contractors, etc in the Chattanooga area?

Thanks!

[Maggie Mendoza]

The meanie side of me says, stay out of our market you out of towners! ;) But the other side says, yes, Chattanooga is a great market to invest in! There's lots of competition so off of market deals are the best.