I live in California (Central Coast) and have built a 12-door portfolio in Detroit, which has been a great market for both cash flow and long-term potential.Detroit still offers properties well below the $150k mark, with strong rent-to-price ratios and a market that’s seeing growth in key areas.

But this was an awesome opportunity for me because this is my first living situation where I will be on my own (and getting used to paying a rent/mortgage) but this will put my overall mortgage on a 400k house at roughly $2000 a month for the first year!

I agree with the others here that say you need to have some skin in the game, if you are going to live there yourself, get an FHA loan rather than owner financing, you can get a 3.5% down loan, personally I do not love these as they require  PMI which is an additional expense, and you also need  bring additional funds for closing at least for taxes, title, attorney and transfer fees . borrowing from anyone else for the down payment, to include a personal loan from the bank is not a good idea, those again will be higher int. rate.

Greetings BP community, I recently joined a national senior care living development team.

@Isaac TerryIn terms of it being worthwhile, just like most other markets out of state if the barrier or entry is too high where you live, the landlord laws are not favorable where you live, and you are looking for positive cashflow then Cleveland can be a good option.

Living in top unit and renting out the bottom.

I'd highly recommend house hacking in your local market since you're in one of the highest cost of living areas in the US, especially if you're renting currently and planning on staying in the area for 5-10 years.It sounds sexy to go out and invest out of state for your first property.

If you go into Central or South Scottsdale (Old Town) $1M will buy you a smaller, older home, OR half of a big, remodeled home (as alot of the Arcadia and Old Town area are turning over old small homes to be big beautiful homes in the $2.5M range and higher).There are options.....for both buying and renting, that would work with your situation.By the way....it's 51 degrees in North Scottsdale right now where I live. 

I previously lived in this property and never locked myself out of my room so I never looked nor do I even know if I have a key for the bedroom door.

I live in a rural market and this type of issue with technology may not be as big a factor in urban areas.