@Tom Veit When you're in Olde Kensington, there are some pretty hard borders that change the population you will be renting out to and therefore the rental rates.

Higher taxes, rent control new regulations, open border, increase in renter rights, lawsuits, property values down, increase inspections, loss of property rights, social  ownership, a nightmare.

Those towns all sit right on the MD border.

The only thing that matters is how much you're willing to gamble.

ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_shareBoth books encouraged getting involved in communities like this one.I can be pretty technical so I’m recreating some of these rental income calculators in excel to help get my feet wet just playing around with potential properties.But my plan at the moment is to meet people, find people like property managers, CPA etc. and just to overload myself with information.I have the older book you mention in my amazon cart now, many of the reviews seem to agree that it is a good reference.And also where I live (on the border of Boca Raton Florida) almost everything has HOAs.

There's no "best way" to accomplish this and it's a gamble every time.

You shouldn't be spending it, gambling it, or investing it.

If you can't buy the property right it's a gamble, not an investment. 

does not mean this will also happen to you.So this is what you do.YOU need to do a cost/deal calculation for every method for lead generation you are considering for your market.Now you know how much money you need IF you were to do DMM, or IF you were to do bandit signs.Now this is DATA, so you are not gambling much here.Then factor in the effort it takes and the time it takes for a deal.Bandit signs may be almost free but it is illegal and a LOT of effort and work, and again risk for hefty fines.DMM simply is a bad idea... so figure out what is feasible and then you go for that!

You are taking a gamble because a bad tenant could cost you way more than appreciation, once you subtract out the transaction costs.