I would stick to SE, flights are more inexpensive compare to Midwest something you should factor in most likely at first you might be traveling more than you might like..Best of luck!!!

We would basically be there in the winter and here in Maine in the summer/fall (June-Octoberish).It has a decent airport with lots of flights to Atlanta (my wife travels a lot for her job and uses Delta). 

I'm going to be going to Ft Rucker for WOCS/flight school in April.

I sure look forward to those flights :-)Thanks again!

Examples: A guy with hotels who used business /personal credit cards for free flights, a guy doing private investing/hard money lending, and last month was a guy who told the story of a 12+ property deal spanning 2 states and 1 primary residence of the seller.  

Im a full time flight attendant and travel with work more than 50% of each month.Id like to buy a duplex out of state, using an FHA loan, and occupy one of the units for the first year. 

Anant Garg Take a flight and meet some local prop mgt companies.

Flight just got delayed so I'm at the airport for ~3 more hours (until 1145pm) 

REI has historically been very competitive.Cash is not king in real estate investing...deal flow is (lots of it).If you don't start now, you will have no experience or relationships if a correction occurs.If a correction occurs, lending/capital sources can dry up.Investors over-estimate their ability to pull the trigger when prices are crashing and there is no end in sight.If you can generate even a small positive IRR from real estate during an economic recession, idle cash is the risky choice (and is very costly over long periods).All properties and markets will not loose significant value in the next down cycle (real estate is local and good locations will always perform well).Investors can add as much or more value to a property than the potential loss of value in a downturn.If we have capital that we have to put to work, prudent real estate can be the flight to safety.I don't like investing into a hot market but sitting on the sidelines for years is not a viable strategy...just have to be really careful.If you are a market appreciation only investor, ignore this post...that can require some market timing.Interested in everyone thoughts.

Based on my research, the greater Phoenix area is not much better than Calif when it comes to the cap rate.I would like to stay within a 2 hour flight distance if I would ever need to make a visit to take care of business being that I still have a day job and time will be a limited resource.