North Texas is good, we do deals there and in Ohio, Cincinatti, Missouri, Michigan and my personal FAV Indy.My biggest suggestion is to screen the TEAM more than the area, make sure they can deliver a specific result.  

Honestly, the biggest challenge in your market won't be finding deals, it will be over regulation and lack of control over your property.

@Rajesh Sharma One of the biggest assetts of a good PM is if they are current with education and legislation.

@Dan Powers I’m one of the biggest  Philadelphia market advocatesyou will find on these forums but this is a terribly drafted article that provides no insight into the profitability of the re-sold properties.

My mind works that way too.In my experience, whenever I've truly wanted to learn a new business inside and out (especially if I didn't know anything about it to begin with) I've found that it's very difficult to completely cut out the less exciting aspects of the business and whittle everything down to a short list of bullet points.There are definitely a lot of "quick start" guides out there (and they're great for highlighting the biggest action steps at the outset), but there's still a lot of learning that needs to happen to fill in the gaps.

I remember when I completed my first ground-up new construction here in Chicago - FELT AMAZING to finish.Our biggest lessons learned were around getting the water service done early on because of our harsh winters and making sure we keep our designer in check! 

The biggest question is, what kind of real estate investor do you want to be moving forward: an active investor or a passive investor? 

My biggest take-aways from this project were confidence, trust, and excitement. - Confidence in our ability to produce a quality product and improve our systems - Trust gained in the hard-money lending community - Excitement for future projects!

The biggest challenge?

Vacancy (either through longer DOM, unpaid rent or evictions) is your biggest enemy.