@James Wise  Per your request.Coming out of the late 1800s most of the major west coast cities that we know and love like LA  SF  PDX SEATAC were all subdivided by the same engineering firms  at least SF and Portlandia were.. this led to land speculators in the day going out into the Western deserts and other remote areas.. buying what were large land holdings , Spanish land grants and other lands that were not govmit owned.. then in the day you could simply create massive subdivisions buy doing basic surveys off of the base and meridian lines.. which all of the west is surveyed off of... this is called section land.then create these massive tracks of lots.. some were like up in the apple valley, Lancaster,  Barstow type areas mainly 5 acre tracts.. and were done on a grid pattern.. streets in ( mapped but not built)  and of course spiraled out of a small little town off the railroad track or the few roads that existed in those days.. you took your map and recorded it at the county, county was happy they just got 5 thousand lots they could send out tax bills on..

I lived in Cherry Valley off Kings Hwy/Church Rd

Cash-Flow, Appreciation, stability, fix-n-flip etc.It sounds like you are looking for cash flow, and you are right mid-west (right now) is the cash flow king.

It's far from easy to find market growth AND cash flow at the same time, but where I was looking at markets where cash flow is king before, I'm now starting to think I should emphasize growth a bit more so long I still have a decent cash flow cushion. 

Hi, my husband James and I have been investors for the last 4 years, off and on, but we haven't really been successful yet.

Awesome, thanks for the feedback on your actual experience James.

Originally posted by @James Martin:Would that be any different than taking a cash out REFI and then putting the cash in a safe place (like a savings account)? 

I advise them on how to build credit or direct them to Insurent and help them with other options, but respectfully tell them I won't show them the apt if they know from the start they wouldn't qualify for it.In Brooklyn we say: "credit is king!".

@James Martin Roll Tide!

Thanks James.