Sacramento has many pockets - you can have a great area with a really bad street that you probably want to avoid at night, and at the same time you can have what looks like an undesirable area with an awesome street and great residents.  

@Jeff BrowerVacancy for Denver should not be 10%, this is a crazy tight market unless you are in an undesireable area. 

Some of the pockets are undesirable based on our standards but you get a high cap rate.

I will probably also end- up targeting 'undesirables,' either way.

Beyond that, though, there's not enough peripheral business spinning off of the university to bring new life to the city, and values have suffered.I'm moving my attention to Blacksburg and Christiansburg.

Anything that IS in the range I'm looking at is either an apartment or in a relatively undesirable area. 

@Shane M. the $60-75K will get you into a decent neighborhood, just make sure you don't get too much lower on purchase price as you'll start getting into very undesirable properties.

I don't know the areas so they could be pretty undesirable so this would require more time researching and traveling getting to know the market.What mystifies me though is how people manage property from afar.  

@Andrew RoysterGetting your real estate license can carry some undesirable baggage. 

In a different part of town, the owner may accept that price, but once you own the property, you may find the area is undesirable and it is difficult for you to easily find high quality tenants.