It has steadily decreased month by month to where it sits now at $169,000.

Now, the thing is, should we choose to invest this chunk of cash into a Texas or Midwest property, which none of us know anything about those areas, it would seem according to multiple sources that our ROI yields roughly the same numbers, in either the flip scenario or buy and hold, but...We end up with a much nicer home in a better neighborhood cashflowing about the same on a property we can pay off in two years just or less (40-60k properties) that have a much slower appreciation, but obviously better income once paid off.ORWe flip a house using way less financing, and inevitably decrease the risk of a flip gone wrong.That's our 20k dollar debate.

There's some potential to also increase the rents and decrease the expenses.Does anyone know how costly and/or difficult it is to separate utilities?

**Edit: I just realized it is actually decreasing your cashflow...

It may diminish the value of his brand and decrease his other property values.

If the house i under water you may have some trouble re-financing it immediately, but there shouldn't be any rush to refi, unless your buddy needs to decrease his DTI to buy something else.The difference between a good deal and a bad deal are the numbers. 

I will also research and take into consideration the area’s present and future employment opportunities, demographics, and historical rental market rates (increasing vs. decreasing).

This decreases the chances of turnover.

The drawback I see, is a decrease in population since 2 000 in those cities and a high crime rate.

My objective is to decrease vacancies and decrease tenant turnover.