You can probably get around that same $3-4k return for a 250k house in texas/arizona/las vegas, etc.

Hello,I live in Vegas and am looking to invest out of state.

Hope that helps.Are you in the Las Vegas area?

As reported in the Miami Herald (https://www.miamiherald.com/real-estate/article221739550.html)  Cities included now are: Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Las Vegas and Seattle.

There are many here in our region of Philadelphia, I am certain that you will have some near you in Las Vegas. 

I just closed on a duplex in Las Vegas and my rate at 25% down for a 30yr conventional was 5.2%.

They way I see it, this is no different than you gambling 1,200/mo in Vegas. 

If you don't need the cash flow, and the property breaks even in the current market, then you're really just speculating, and if you have the money to speculate it may not matter one way or the other, much like it may not matter if you go to Vegas and blow a grand at the casino if you have the grand to blow. 

Saying that about Dodge takes a lot - they've come a ways since the casino was put in.Anyways I went on a tangent - but do your homework and check out the short term rental market - maybe buy a duplex and use the other half as a short term rental or a small apt complex if you can afford it near the university. 

My husband and I own two single family rental properties, one in Alaska, one in Las Vegas.