Buy a SFH/condo with as many rooms as you can afford and house hack the crap out of it.

Akron, Lorain, Elyria & Canton are all good spots that don't have the same B/S lead crap that Cleveland does.

Due to all the crap going on in NC right now with tenants, I would definitely have a half way decent lease contract in place.

If I inherited a real estate portfolio, I'd sell that crap. 1 law suite can leave me with nothing plus I got my 9-9 and my own condos to deal with.

At the moment we have a tenant who is being quite difficult... communication completely eradicated.

The tenant pool in that area won’t be great, so you’ll be dealing with a ton of crap that a B class neighborhood you would not have to.

Instead of putting down or talking crap about new investors, why not educated them about broker fees and other stuff.

“Deal dog” daily email sends me the same crap from Craigslist (other wholesalers listing properties) and auction.com (exclusively foreclosure auctions).My three day cancellation window has passed, but one more strike (testing again tomorrow), and I will fight tooth & nail for a refund.Not happy thus far...  

The leasing broker has to work a crap ton for their fee to get them to your site over others.If you decide all you can get is a higher risk small to no credit tenant then you may want to only start paying the fee once open and first months rent received on time and have a clause if the tenant goes bankrupt or closes the fee is no longer owed to leasing broker.

You may have to start out low, you may have to move, you may have to beg, borrow or steal money, but there is a way in for you and the dream is still alive...this is still the U S of A.Hint - Forget the 'saving the world' crap and focus on getting a successful business going.....that's the way to help yourself, your family and eventually others in your community.