I paid 20k for the first lot i bought in Charleston in the poorest neighborhood of downtown..

Sell it for the same you bought you pull in $40,000.  

For example, John down the street bought that house for X and put in 30K, and then sold it for X.

No, I only really remodeled the master bedroom after I bought the house.

The first neighborhood I would look at is anything next to infrastructure - if it has grocery stores, malls, gas stations.

But in the end we bought a big townhouse with low HOA dues for ~$50k under market value.

We make about $250k per year(before taxes) and have outgrown our first home we bought at beginning of 2020.

@Cameron Porter +95% of the land bank inventory is already picked over by the time it hits the public.The only people we know that have bought ALL went over budget and only the increasing market covered what would have been losses.So, proceed VERY carefully!

This is my first time selling an investment property and I need your help. 2 years ago, I bought a building as a whole with 4 townhomes and I’ve been renting each townhome.

If you owned them for 10 years, I’d be very surprised if they are not worth more today than when you bought.