I feel for the OP as far too many first time buyers get into these 203K type deals where they are purchasing retail then spending 50-100k or more with zero construction knowledgeOn a side note, we are in Key West for a month then heading to North Carolina for a wedding but we plan on spending a few days in Charleston. 

You could do these all day long in the mid west in some cities.

And then it comes down to regions  some regions you can do the landlording gig. look at all these 30 somethings that have built up nice portfolios mainly in the mid west.. you can do that there when your price points are where they are at basically the cost of new cars. however that becomes much more difficult in the coast markets.. and those folks can also buy a nice home to live on for 200k  were in Silicon valley its 2 million  !! 

Originally posted by @Steven Picker:I have bought houses where the tenants jumped the meters,but now most power companies have smart meters which prevents this type of theft,it still the electric company responsibility to supply the meters stolen or not, most areas this is not correct Steve.. in high theft areas of the mid west for sure this is not the electric companies responsibility. he will have to replace it.. his deductible is probably such that insurance is a waste of time.. so its just one of those cost of doing business and being a landlord.. and lucky they did not also strip all the copper.. 

I have a personal preference for the west and northwest areas of Orlando (Apopka, Eustis, Mt Dora, Clermont, Leesburg, Umatilla, etc). 

But purchasing an apartment somewhere in the mid-west would be out of the question for me as I would not want to fly out.

I work a FT sales job (travel to the west coast often for work), got my IL RE license last summer, and want to buy my first investment property in the NW suburbs of Chicago SOON.

After doing all of our due diligence we landed in West Texas. 

The Valley spans from Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs in the West, to Indio and Coachella to the South East.

West of The Paseo looked good too.