Great points, ZharaBirmingham has relatively steady and diverse rental demand, and I’ve seen many investors I work with have success with C/B class buy-and-holds.Location is key—areas near UAB, major employers, and popular suburbs tend to have the strongest rental demand, while C/D class markets offer solid affordable housing and Section 8 opportunities.

I gravitate towards "red states" given the landlord-friendly laws and relative ease of evictions, which unfortunately are unavoidable in the buy and hold game.

If you buy a property with a tenant already there, what if the home needs a lot of rehab when they move out?

Otherwise, get a HELOC to access the equity to buy a home in AZ.

I'm a digital nomad who purchased a 4plex in Carson City, NV a couple of years ago as a buy & hold.

I mostly buy and hold. 

We were able to negotiate a buy down on the interest rates. 

I'm thinking about buying a property in NC.

Since you're 6-12 months away from buying, use this time to build investor relationships, master deal analysis, and secure financing.

BiggerPockets also has a calculator to analyze deals, and I highly recommend you start this as soon as possible, even if you are not ready to buy.