what if appreciation is low for the next 2-5 years?

- The current low rent is probably to offset maintenance issues at the property.- Try to raise the rent and the tenant will give you a list of all the maintenance issues they want you to fix. --- They will offer to fix them in exchange for lower rent, but ask yourself, if the tenant has been living there for 25 years, why isn't everything fixed already?

I would estimate the ARV @ $230,000 on the low side, at least that is where we will list it with hopes that it will move as quickly as some of the comps have recently.

Owning locally has helped me accumulate considerable equity with a relatively low initial investment.

It is pretty low risk from my viewpoint.Then, after you've sold the first property, you could buy another home that needs to be fixed up, live in it as your primary residence, rehab it, and sell it again after living in it for 2 years as your primary residence out of the last 5 years.

Prices a few years ago were based on expectations of (in addition to interest rates staying low): - Then current operating cost assumptions (like insurance cost expectations being flat)- A seeming disregard for record levels of new inventory / supply hitting the market- Extremely high inbound migration expectations which are likely to not be met, due to both natural disasters and the boomerang effect when people from California or the Northeast move to the American South and hate every minute of the humidity, the large and relentless swarm of insects, and the occasional hurricane. 

I have been consuming as much education/reading regarding out of state investing as I can as well as literature regarding buying larger buildings (not quite the syndication level) although I have been reading that material as well to digest.

Luckily, we were living in the house when properties were appreciating like crazy and interest rates were low. 

Here’s the bottom line; unless the deal is VERY large, or the sponsor is going to syndicate a large number of deals, the investor will make more money purchasing the property theirselves with a option low to moderate interest rate loan.  

If you're going the live in flip route - one great option would be to go with a low money down owner occupied loan to fund your next purchase.