All they can do is tell you to pound sand, so offer it.

The most beautiful thing about real estate isnt the fact that its pound for pound the best way to generate wealth, but a lot of the mistakes can be prevented simply by spending time on this message board alone.

All of these things are experiences to me, both good and bad, desirable and undesirable, but experiences nonetheless.

If you want stable rents with little upside it could work out but if the market turns then the slower job growth area could turn into an undesirable area. 

Just as a penny stock can be delisted and become unmarketable and virtually worthless, your $50K duplex can become unmarketable, uninsurable, in-underwritable and completely undesirable. 

The challenge is figuring out which ones work for your targets.These days you can get an MLS listing with minimal (read none) service which is still the 800 pound gorilla for retail real estate when selling or leasing.

But learn from this experience, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

That said, if all you follow is the numbers you will end up with junk properties in undesirable areas.

Pound it as much as you can, grab all opportunities.

The sellers fear is if the home were to have severe damage and the insurance would cover the damage and replace roof and kitchen then they would be locked into a undesirable contract and now the home is worth more.