I know Tempe is a good location as well but with all of the community colleges in the area like CGCC, MCC, ASU tempe, ASU Phoenix, ASU Poly, and even AT still there is not shortage of places where you could target.

The affordable housing shortage at this point is bordering on ridiculous.

On one hand, Covid has kept a lot of homes off the market and there is shortage of product. 

You should absolutely make sure you have more than adequate reserves to make up for any shortage on debt coverage if entertaining one of these.  

There are no shortage of lipsticked pig properties out there, and learning to spot them is essential for successful RE investing...we're all susceptible to "shiny object syndrome", but being aware of it is the first step to avoiding it!

You will find that if you let them talk, just want advice, don't dominate their time, are grateful and maybe even offer to help them for free if they could use your limited skills you will have no shortage of people open to sharing their thoughts with you.

@Tyler Pearson I think you have to ask yourself what the underlying cause of the huge housing shortage is in Phoenix.

That's assuming the shortage was more than my available cash on hand.

The fact of the matter is the majority of working Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck at the moment and it will get really ugly if a wrench gets thrown at those that are most vulnerable.The current trend now is an affordable housing shortage in the most popular metro areas across the country, and there doesn't seem to be any resolution in sight as new residential construction in this country is stagnant.

But what they don't know until later is this:There is no housing shortage in Oklahoma cities (plenty of houses to buy or rent.)People currently paying low rents are not going to move into houses with higher rents.