You can still achieve it, but finding deals that actually pencil out on all criteria (low enough purchase price, low enough renovation cost, cash flows on the backend, all cash out at refinance) is pretty hard.

Only the house 5 down with the same sq ft is literally worth 100K more because the neighborhood actually changes in those 5 houses. 

And a deal in my opinion is one that will 1. pay for itself(All property expenses) and 2. pay the debt service(if necessary) and 3. put money into my pocket each month.  

Fortunately, we didn't lose money on this property but just broke even.

I would love to explore the rest of the US - if I had the money.

Purchase price: $240,000 Cash invested: $60,000 purchased this distressed duplex using owner financing for $240K and a $60K hard money loan for renovations.

@Shaylynn O'LearyI think I may have posted this in response to you in another thread a while back, but here goes again.If you pick a random "low cost" market like the ones you named, don't know anyone there, don't set up a network, buy random properties, and turn them over to people you've never met to manage, you will most likely lose money. 

Again, the idea there is farmhands [in general and past] tend to not make lots of money.

I have found that Redfin actually has pretty good search parameters to where you can look for listings that have been sitting a while that fit your buy box, and you can even do keyword searches for things like "as is", "investor", "seller financing", "guest house", etc. depending on what you are looking for.

Do you have money set aside?