i don't recommend buying a random property in a random midwest state for $118K that looks great but actually needs a new furnace, a new roof and a new sewer line, and will crush you with capex and make you sad.hope that helps. 

So researching properties to buy doesn't count unless you actually buy something -- and this isn't Amazon where I'm randomly buying things on a weekly basis.  

The problem many of us run into is being in New England, many of the markets are high cost, high appreciation markets that we either can't get pre qualified for, or even after moving out will struggle to cash flow.Another big constraint is that many of us have W-2 jobs in engineering that require some days in the office, and these types of higher paying jobs are primarily in major cities (most of us are in the Boston area).Lastly, a lot of us have significant others that may be less interested in living somewhere "random" because it makes sense as an investment.

No good property management companies want a random two-family for the most part.

unfortunately the overall market is tough right now and the last thing you should do is spend 50-80K to buy a random property just to "do a deal" and then lose money on it.

You’re also going to have a 25% depreciation recapture on 3.6% (got) per year on the building value, 10 years in your case…so random guessing.

I was on BP Money Episode 325:  https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/money-325For some reason the signatures in the Forum seem to assign random podcast numbers to past guests, I’ve noticed this with other people as well.

i would never tell a random person on the internet where they should live. 

Not a good analogy because the tenant isn't a random person who broke into your house.

The shelters and foster networks are incredibly overrun, and I want to be responsible and not hand them off to random or possibly cruel strangers.