Otherwise, they will just end up ignoring you and you'll get frustrated. 3) Naive/newbie investors get burned all the time by only looking at the numbers - w/o fully understanding how the location/property/tenant will affect those numbers.- They often get sold Class C or D properties while using Class A assumptions - then wonder why they are losing money.Here's some copy & paste info that you hopefully find helpful:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

@Robert Gorra - I've had a similar experience where I've had a really hard time with getting GC's to even give me an estimate, and the few that have have been way overpriced (ie, they want me to put in $20k of cabinets in a budget flip) or have had their prices go up by about 40% and still not give me a firm price when I try to nail down the scope of work.

Come up with a budget.

Please feel free to reach out to me and my team if you would like to come up with a game plan and build your buy box. 

Being that rates are up it's another way to offer exatly what you mentioned; the chance to own for a couple hundred bucks more than renting.Thoughts?

If you are simply buying for a lifestyle investment, then you have much more leeway in what/where you might consider buying.

For example, if your purchase price was $300K and the FMV at gifting is $500K, the recipient's cost basis remains $300K, potentially leading to higher taxes upon sale.You and your spouse can gift up to $38K annually per recipient (under the annual exclusion) without reducing the lifetime gift exemption.

See the fact that mortgage rates are up about 1% from Oct when the fed started to cut the fed funds overnight rate as evidence. 

If your rent ends up being comparable to your current mortgage, it might not give you the cash flow flexibility you’re hoping for.

That probably doesn't work well for rents, and the neighborhood will look beat up in 10 years, when almost every house got sold to investors.