We always run a market analysis before making a purchase for ourselves or our investors.

These cities are the well known, sub 100k markets in the US.

A few other houses (all single family houses) on the same street are on the market for rental and they (including my house) all get grouped and nestled under one cover listing as “units” of an apartment complex.

Purchase price: $270,000 Cash invested: $54,000 A multi-family upper/lower duplex in Ankeny found off-market during COVID.

I used a hard money loan to purchase this off market deal.I rehabbed the upper two units within two and a half weeks and have a renter already lined up for one unit.

I am looking into my STR options but from what I have learned this is a overflowing market in the area and the vacancy's are increasing so I may look into mid term and long term only.

Unless you are sourcing properties yourself off-market, REI became much more challenging in 2023, and downright brutal since the start of 2024 here.   

There is no additional "risk" on the note like a demand clause etc, but you have  extra expense in upfront one time costs and the pre-payment penalty that most programs are sold with if rates do drop as expected in the future.  

So they used the actual rented data of these companies to compare what rentals should go for in your market.

You could put most of your funds in the stock market and access them when needed for a HML.