You can look at the towns that surround Charlotte and find deals that make sense when the time is right for you.

Small towns may rely too much on a single business or market segment.

One of my sub to's back in the day the loan was portfolio with a small town CU and when we took it over the seller walked in and told them what they did..

I am also from the B/CS area and have some investment properties in town.

@Vivian Huang  Town or beach it depends whether you're buying for investment purposes or for yourself or both.I'm buying mostly for investment purposes.

And yeah Marquette, MI is an appreciating market and a college town where everyone complains about increasing rents (and their bad landlords).Hopefully I can still find a few properties that can cash flow anything, no matter how small, with zero down but I'll have to see if they'll pass VA inspection too.

Another option is to explore private lenders or HELOCs to cover the equity.

I'm normally not one that advocates trigger-happy decisions, but IMO this kind of investing needs solid boots on the ground, and you're out of town.

If you need help exploring financing options or structuring your first deal, feel free to reach out.Best,Drago

Location says Ann Arbor but we are in a smaller town west of there.