@Eric Martin I grew up in Montgomery, and still have immediate family there.

Investment Info:Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

I only have experience with regular single-family homes as STRs.

Investment Info:Large multi-family (5+ units) commercial investment investment.

Frank, For a rookie investor with low capital looking to build a rental portfolio, the best strategy is house hacking: buy a small multi-family home with a low down payment (FHA or conventional loan), live in one unit, and rent the others to cover your mortgage.

In Ohio you can find a lot of single family in the $100-200k range or 2-4 units in the $150-400k range that do pretty well cash flow.

The majority of the business I do is buying small multi families and identifying the towns that are more favorable for investing. 

But it is very much applicable to single family rental and residential units simply by getting bridge financing and a post transfer cash out refi.

Just make sure you keep enough in an emergency fund in case a roof or furnace goes out. 

I'm new to real estate investing, but have thrown myself into learning as much as I can by joining a Veteran based investment community, have been working with my realtor and looking daily for potential multi family properties in the Dallas area for house hacking, which I've set myself an deadline to be completed by May.