Quote from @Ethan M.: I recently did some data crunching on Zillow's public datasets.

In addition to my surrounding area of Bridgeport, I am also open to looking in New Haven County, Middlesex, and Hartford as well as an out of state market (Detroit, MI). 

@Cynthia Lee it depends on your state and local laws.Here in Michigan, we can accept partial rent payments up to the Writ status and have it not affect the eviction process.

I ended up hiring a local attorney who specialized in landlord-tenant disputes, and while it cost me a bit more upfront, it was worth it to get the situation resolved without additional delays.A close friend of mine also delt with an out-of-state eviction in Michigan last year.

On top of that, OOS investors love the price point here, and MI is actually pretty landlord friendly, contrary to some opinions.I personally make well over $100k/yr cash flow from 21 properties here.

In a nutshell, IL (where I live) too expensive of a market, but WI, MI, OH etc seems like you’d get more bang for your buck. also,  you can look at a City’s  consolidation plan and what their plans are for development to get a good forecasting of housing booms.

@Dave Stokley@Lisa Marie@Dan Heuschele@Cody L.

Do better rehabs.  100% agreed mate,Safety comes in the volume.Something that I've "preached" for many years.It's not worth the time, money or even risk buying 1 or 2 or even 3 properties unless an investor has a growth type mindset and a will to scale to 10+.It's very simple, you own 1 and it goes vacant.That's a 100% impact on your income.You own 10 and 1-2 to go vacant.That's only a 10-20% impact on your income.It's also a very high likelihood that problems will always exist with 1 or 2 properties at any given moment...Plus, such markets (Ohio and Michigan) don't appreciate as much as many others like a Texas and Florida for example.Michigan and Ohio are slow movers and only recently (10+ years later) caught up to some of the other "higher flying" markets from a yearly growth percentage.Much success

Mary Beth

I know who polices got us talking to Marvin (Michigan unemployment) and who got us overtime.