Nick,Between Dayton and Middletown those are two great spots to buy a 2-4 unit in as an investment rental.

If your current lender can’t accommodate you, explore STR-focused lenders like Host Financial or Lima One Capital, or consider bridge loans to buy time while you build your rental history.

Price RangeDefine your financial boundaries based on available capital and borrowing ability:For Class A & B, financing typically covers 75%-80% of the purchase price, allowing you to buy properties in the $6M-$12M range if you have $2.3M total cash.For Class C & D, due to higher risk, the price range might be reduced to $5M-$10M with the same cash.5.

Investment Info:Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

There is a ton of risk for the seller as we know in these deals and there are bad actors in these deals as well.. ran into many of them buy sub to never pay of the mortgage rip the rents and down the road..some off those folks got criminally charged and got prison time..

Getting one property and cashflowing it will be a challenge. you can try seller financing but you are still going to be highly levered which just enhances the risk that you are taking on.The best way to grow is to focus on managing your rental, saving money through your W2 and crushing that - if you are a realtor you will make more crushing it as being a realtor than over leveraging real estate - then save for down payment and buy slowly. its not a rush.

Its the easiest way to buy up to 4 doors for only 3.5% down. 

I just finished reading The ABCs of Real Estate Investing and ABCs of Buying Rental Property by Ken McElroy.

Every market in residential zoning has an expiration date, we just don't know what it is yet.The obvious solution is to buy in already regulated areas with tourist/commercial zoning.The returns are lower, but at least they can't go to zero overnight.

If you’re truly convinced the country is going “socialist” then you should probably buy gold and turn off the news.