@David Charles Edwards to reinforce your preference to not move around a lot, making your rentals your primary residence won’t get you that far.

I work remotely and prefer a location within 2-3 hours of West Palm Beach, where my family lives.

In the last years seller financing has become a very rare thing - bank money is so cheap, that only very weak buyers will prefer it and to buy often times a less than great deal.Step one would be in my book find a local commercial broker who is willing to represent you.

BTW, my year to date has been on par with last year with ADR up a bit and occupancy down a bit (which I prefer) and my fall is looking stable given I’m in the hurricane prone area of SWFL. 

I just did the math myself and you're looking at $300/mo per property or something like that (of course depends on where you are and what you buy).Take it slower - buy one very good property (preferably a serious fixer) and get it done, then Re-Fi and keep moving....

I prefer someone holding the CRE designation to perform the study, although MAI designees are usually also qualified.  

Hi Shiwei,You’re going to hear many opinions about which markets are great for investing, but I prefer to let the data do the talking.

As for "who might be the preferred operators"?

In 12209 you want to be on Delaware Ave or preferably west of it. 12208 is the area around Albany Med/Law schools which has a lot of good neighborhoods but prices are higher and cap rates are low.

There are some sub 75k deals out there that would make great buy, repair, rent and hold properties but I'd prefer to be able to preserve my own capital as much as possible to knock out quite a few deals this year and in the next several years.