I did get grandfathered in and the area where I bought is in a nice part of town. 

In one town where we had 12 rental houses, every one was sold to owner occupants, not landlords.

There are towns that are not too far where there could be some options for you, but I would start going to real estate investor meetups and pair that with books and podcasts.

STR is another concern, many towns have laws against it but most towns do not enforce these laws, just make sure you are aware of them becuase they can be enforced. 

Waynesville, a great neighboring town just outside Buncombe that's been pretty great for STR, is starting to talk of a similar ban.

I will be in town Friday-Sunday for the National Real Estate Investing Summit. 

($20-$40k/yr) then you should definitely target small midwestern towns where you can get cashflow and zero appreciation.

I've done this with my properties because I'm well known in my small town and don't want people to know what I own.LEGAL PROTECTION: By placing your assets in an LLC, you are legally separating them from your personal assets.

At yet another sale there was a brick row house/town house for sale that looked good from the street, but since it was in the middle of the row, to see the back of the house, you had to walk around the block and see the house from the alley, where the entire 3 story brick back wall of the house was laying in the back yard, and there was no back wall standing. 

A number years ago, I went to town buying a bunch of rentals in a short period of time and I can assure you they took money from my family instead of putting money in my family pocket.