A few notes on the area from my observations:1) stay away from Newburgh, housing is cheap but it's a war zone and schools are bad2) single family is hard to cashflow in the area because taxes are too high relevant to rental rates.  

The cycle is slow, so you have time to observe as things come down.  

Those are very accurate observations. 

on the other hand FHA has lessen  their lending requirements on condos and it has been a very fast moving niche in Vegas The condos fill the gap between the plus $200 k single homes and the more affordable condo prices  But I have to agree with the above observations SFR are the best to buy .

Some people dig out their basements and get a legal apartment below them.... a painfully slow process from what I've observed.

But it is clear that some of the suburbs have fared better than others over the last 4 years:This data meshes nicely with our observations of rental growth and leasing activity in the Tulsa metro.

But some general observations.  

Typically the ideal situation for asset protection (observing corporate formalities and protecting the corporate veil) and tax advantages (using the right type of entity for the right tax advantages) is to hold rentals in the standard LLC while an S-elected LLC or S-Corp would be used to manage your properties.

Also, this is just an observation, most agents seem to enjoy telling everyone they are an agent, socializing with agents, networking, and all that crap rather than doing work.

Most people think they will get better returns on their own stuff and in some sense they are right because of a few things (not an exhaustive list but this is what I observe):1) They don't pay themselves for time.