Buy as an investment, and buy intelligently.

First step is to request all financials for the property to make sure you understand the income and expenses and can formulate an intelligent offer.

You seem pretty intelligent based on your posts and I’m sure you’ll figure it out.

A big part of me wishes I would have had the same direction and financial intelligence I do now, I perhaps could have devoted that time and money that went into school into starting my business, learning a trade/skill that pays well, etc. 

Educate on books/podcasts for out of state investing or rental property investing, example books:-  "Long-Distance Real Estate Investing: How to Buy, Rehab, and Manage Out-of-State Rental Properties" by David Greene-  "The Book on Rental Property Investing: How to Create Wealth and Passive Income Through Intelligent Buy & Hold Real Estate Investing!"

Otherwise there’s a website called Airdna that can give you very good market intelligence but it’s not free though.Best of luck!

This is probably a really dumb question, but I figured I'd ask a forum full of intelligent and experienced landlords rather than fly blind.We've just started to advertise our first rental property and we've received a lot of interest and applicants.

Buy and hold is lower risk, so maybe that's why it's appealing during times of volatility, good lending rates create beneficial leverage but that doesn't make the deal margins better (artificial returns).

Hi Tony,If you are assuming the past water bill at close (I don't know if you can do that or not), it might be intelligent to call the water company and see if they have a payment plan, and how much it will cost to get the water into your name, and how much DEPOSIT they will want to turn it back on.

Gain financial intelligence and make smart investments.