I like them both, in general, but the best way to find a town to invest in outside of where you live if it's not affordable and if you don't want to be withing driving distance easily (recommended) is to make two lists:1. every town you have ever lived in or visited for more than a month2. every town your closest friends and family live (the ones you like)Then you take those two lists and see where they overlap with the data or lists you are using.

If you take the lower value areas the only reason people choose to live there is the affordability really.

I like starting in the Midwest because it's affordable and offers good cash flow.

I just completed my first rehab deal, and I still cashflow, but I can't afford property management without basically negating the rest.

At the time I didn't think she could afford it but right now I'm glad she did.

There are social service orgs in MD that offer free legal advise to people in such matters if they can't afford to hire an attorney.

This is a garden home and the yard is fenced in with a 10 foot privacy board in board fence The neighbor stated it was making her violently ill and that it is a health hazard for her as it was coming in through her vents and or windowsshe has also been known to harass my last tenant, and sending us text that trees are too close to her home telling us that we need to cut it because there were branches over her skylight and she claims that it was scratching the cover. she called the city when the last tenant had to sell all of her items at an estate sale due to loosing her job and having to move from the property and cited that she was in violation of city ordinances due to not informing the county of an estate sale.

I would only suggest a property management company set up if you are not working for an employer and are interested in retirement account contributions + deducting health insurance costs.If you are already working for an employer who is providing a retirment account plan + subsidizing health insurance costs, in my opinion, no point in setting it up.

I'm currently based in California FWIW.Detroit has a lot going for it: affordable properties, a solid rent-to-price ratio, and a ton of neighborhoods with strong rental demand.

House hacking is the lowest risk way to get into REI as long as you take on a mortgage you can afford on your own income.