- Land Contract would be better:)Question: how are you going to lose $2500/month if you rent?

So - somewhere 2 hours away, or somewhere you like to vacation in, or where all your family lives, or where you plan to move someday.Too many people are trying to do exactly what you're doing - pick a market based on a formula - and they end up buying a random 'cheap' property thousands of miles away, turn it over to people they've never met or even spoken to, and then... lose money.  

@Henry Clark other than just a normal google search of "population of x" town, is there a specific site you use?

I've been on the scavenger hunt trying to find it, county site has a summary only.

I have a feeling just starting out my home is not going to get much exposure on sites like air bnb or vrbo until I get some good reviews.If anyone has experience in this market I would be intrigued to hear how best to manage my new STR.

I feel sorry for the people losing everything in the fires , insurance will go up .But I wish I was the guy  driving this bulldozer ;t=162s

If you dont have a great team to work with you can lose your shirt even if the house is next door to where you live... there are lots of great areas but only a limited number of great teams so our final choice has always been team driven... saying that we look for an area where there are lots of opportunities  and rental houses available in good areas using the 2 % rule  we found this in Detroit and Toledo  more then willing to share what we do and what we have learnt over the years

Would love to form connections through this site !

On the other hand, maybe you are going to lose some personal income due to retirement and want the cash flow.

Miraculously, I didn’t lose my shirt, but I broke even on one house and, due to other circumstances, had to walk away from another.