@Bob OkenwaYep, that makes sense to me.

Not to say you cannot find a deal in many of those states but for a first time investor wanting to be cost efficient it makes little sense to stick to those states.You do have states like Indiana, Ohio, Tenn, Florida, Georgia, Texas that offer higher inventory of home prices even 2-4 unit multifamily that are under $200K.

You only get a sense of this by meeting face-to-face once or twice.A bad borrower can kill a great project.

Some, but not a lot of choices are rare do any of the prices make sense to me.   

That makes sense.

Santarelli as an absolute industry expert (podcast, websites, press, social media advertisement) cause investors to have a false sense of security.

It is not passive in any sense of the word.  

The "land basis" cannot be depreciated, so your depreciable portion will be lower than $350k.We typically consider $1 million in building basis as a rule of thumb where it makes sense to evaluate the potential benefits.

I am currently working toward getting into the Captain chair then eventually to mainline if it makes sense to make the jump when the time comes. 

@Christopher Reynolds My mantra has always been, "Live where you want to live; invest where it makes sense."