I mostly work in low to moderate income areas anyway so it checks all those other boxes.

Quote from @Bonnie Low: Hey, Colin!

Our goal is to keep your maintenance costs low to keep your return on investment high. 

@Angelo LlamasAt the bare minimum, you should do the following to make your bookkeeping easier:- Dedicate one checking account and credit card exclusively to real estate.

They keep rent low, give gifts and homemade cookies for Christmas, make upgrades whenever the tenant requests,  accept all the late rent excuses, etc.The truth is, your tenant is not your friend.

I'm not a big fan of HELOC toward a down payment unless the numbers make sense and vacancy rate is low. 

Up north the gas company will install additional meters for a very low cost, usually hourly billed time for the work and possibly low cost equipment.

I feel like it's a space where great operators can really clean up, since the bar is set really low, in my experience at least.

In any case, I doubt many people on BP would want to buy properties in Switzerland given the very low returns that can be achieved there.

I've even been discouraged while joining grant funded programs allegedly for "low income" buyers.