It's a competitive market and most of the people that get in trouble here are ones that buy blindly without actually figuring out the numbers, etc.You'd be surprised the number of times I get asked after month one if their electric bill of $xxx or whatever is normal, and the thought running through my head is "how did you not  check things like that before you committed half a million dollars to something?"

Nice thought but not reality by a MILE.. real estate is full of dreamers..

At about half of my properties I provide quarterly exterior pest control services.

Each potential buyer has come to their own conclusion that it would be too much hassle and risk to manage in this fashion vs a traditional rental even though the average cap rate in our area has been half that at best.

I've owned student housing as far as 4.1 miles from the University of South Carolina campus.In my experience, the only reason kids would live that far away is cheap rent.

All 4 units are rented but at half as much as market value. 2 of the 4 tenants have lived there for 20+ years and one of those tenants is a hoarder and their unit needs gutted.

@Nicholas Foy Guessing your property is south of 9 Mile?

I currently live in a 3-bedroom, 3-bath townhome about half a mile from Texas A&M's campus, which I plan to rent out once I move into the new home.

I do value her as a cleaner and she definitely goes the extra mile and are the eyes and ears on the ground for me.

I can definitely see how going 100 miles south towards San Diego can give me greater perspective into out of state flips.I can agree to disagree that the best contractors are not found on yelp.