@Lillian Pintaro,Birmingham’s a lucrative market—it’s been my stomping ground for nearly 20 years, and you can find some excellent deals if you know what you’re after and dive deep by zip code, neighborhood, and city block.For what it’s worth, we manage 2,000+ units (many for out-of-state investors) mostly in the north and west part of town—so think suburbs outside the city limits like Graysville (35073), Adamsville (35005), Mount Olive (35117), Center Point (35215), and the like.Since you’re also open to the surrounding areas, places like Odenville (to the east) and Tuscaloosa (to the southwest) could be worth checking out.

Consider single-family homes or small multi-units to learn the ropes.

Conventional financing is a great option to get started if you have a W2 job or easily verifiable income and you're financing a 1-4 unit property.

Rather than face the fear of rejection or work on his self-esteem, he convinces himself that beautiful women are inherently undesirable. 

We are looking to get into small multifamily (12-20 units ) once the sell is final (speaking it into existence!

By this point, they will have already thought about what might happen if you leave, including the need to turn over the unit and find a new renter.

List price: 445,000.DP: 89,000Closing: 8900Total Invest: 97,900Projected mortgage: 2500Rent: 1700 per unit, 3400 totalTaxes: 42Insur: 263CapEx: 100Repairs: 100Vacancy: 100Total expense: 3105Cash flow: 295, 3.1% - 6.0% CoC return. 

I'm not quite sure what it would look like, but I definitely want my units back in rentable condition with as little down time as possible.Thanks! 

Long term $ can range from 6's-10% range depending on all types of factors - LTV, location, unit count, debt coverage, borrower strength, full doc or lite doc programs, etc..

The STR part plays no part in the valuation like @Patricia Andriolo-Bull said.I agree that 20% is pretty fair, but you could self manage it once you get things in order.