The S&P 500 did 6.9% in the last 10 years, so it's a wiser play assuming rents don't go down, which they haven't in Boston for a long time (excluding luxury and ultra-luxury condos, which there are too many of right now, and my place is not a luxury condo).

Lot's of trash out there where I scratch my head why anyone would ever buy such a property.On the flip side there are investors who are ultra conservative throwing low balls out there when the market doesn't dictate that spread or yield.

Ohio has a great repossession law on land contract, close to evicting.ROFR or right of first refusal and a lease can be a tool to motivate the buyer to buy.Buyer Incentives like paying all closing costs or even "we will pay first 3 mortgage payments" like the apartment ads, or "free 99 inch plasma ultra smart tv with purchase" always help sellers sell------ For buyers buying on seller financing, I would first go to a RMLO or  registered mortgage loan originator; unless you've been under a rock since January 10, 2014 the federal government has made seller financing difficult.

That will determine to a degree what kind of first property you might be targeting.If you are ultra conservative on your purchase and do the correct due diligence usually you won't end up handing the keys back to the lender whoever they may be.What kind of return are you looking for with the cash invested??

Classic charm neighborhoods with high end values (at least to KC terms)As for the Silicon Prairie, I follow this quite a bit and have pretty good confidence in the Fiber-hood taking hold (Google's first internet service provider city is KC) with ultra-fast internet.  

It is Valspar Ultra 2000 satin from Lowes, I have to double check on the exact color.

Fannie/Freddie got ultra conservative during the crash, and have been VERY SLOWLY relaxing things.

I was once an equity research analyst and so there was a time I believed unfailingly in the superiority of stock investments, and then through meeting ultra-wealthy investors as an advisor came to see that many held a LOT of real estate and had done extremely well, which eventually led to something of a conversion on the matter. 

I'll take a guess: Ultra liberal rent control policies that don't allow rent increases that keep up with inflation + anti-landlord policies = Landlord not giving a **** about the place and not fixing things.It sounds like he wants you gone. 

@Amanda Lee Assuming your market is not ultra-hot and does not have super-low vacancy, then, in most circumstances, in order to charge market rents, your units will have to be at or around the quality of the average unit at the price point you're charging.