I understand your home market may not be attainable and there may be a need to purchase in  secondary market that have lower cost barriers of entry but don't focus solely on cost of entry.

The 70% rule is more like a heuristic, depending on the property you should go lower or higher on the offer.

However, setting aside that money doesn’t lower your net income.

This is a lot safer but lower potential returns than the second options.

I’m in the process of searching for land in the Houston area to then build a 4-plex on it.The plan is to self-fund the purchase & construction, rent the units and cash out with a mortage.I like the idea of serving lower income families and therefore don’t shy away from section 8.This is the first time I do something like this, so I’m throwing it out there in hopes of hearing your thoughts and learning from your experience!

Although still rare, some of these duplexes are now coming with impact windows, which further lowers your insurance and increases storm protection, so this may be something else to look into.

Obviously the lower the price, the more attractive it is.

If that's your market, your only choice is to get aggressive or sit vacant.Consider lowering the price but increasing your standards.

These people did lower their price recently and actually called us again. 

So I am thinking it may be worth it for tenant retention and lowering long term maintenance costs.