To anyone reading this, ask yourself why would someone spend so much time "contributing" on blogs like this?

No investments on Spokane, but want to chime in and say that I am very, very bullish on Spokane after spending two weeks there in August.

I charge them what they cost me and I get a better price than anyone else because of the volume I spend.

Save every penny you make, live with room mates, drive a beat up truck, house hack distressed properties and spend all of your spare time DIY rehabbing them.

I'm spending at least 20-25 hours a week "managing" Suncoast Property Management. 

You may have to spend a few bucks to install a camera, and stipulate in  the lease they use only their can.

In addition to some of the great advice above, I would put some serious work into your personal household budget and building up a substantial (6 month) emergency reserve fund.

One needs to understand how to check title on their own though.. spending 200 bucks on a title report your going to blow through a lot of 200.00s as I mentioned above not many actually go to sale.

@Mae Dungo I personally think that spending almost $20k is an exorbitant amount of money for a mentor.

Of course not all markets are you going to spend 10k on furniture and then double your rents or more than double the rent as in our case.