What I also enjoy is when people put out articles with contradicting view points and in six months or a year point to the - "see how correct i was", well yeah you placed bets on both red, black and green so you were going to be correct because you bet on all options.

If your bet is appreciation, bet your underlying fixed costs go up.

Make sure to check out local meet-ups and connect with others for helpful insights.Can’t wait to see your progress!

Perhaps not a trend to consider across the city but any neighborhood that would attract college educated young professional families seems to be a good bet if you wanted to focus on this asset type.I plan to build 12 townhomes as a second phase of a condo/townhome project in a good area of Mount Airy near the Chestnut Hill boarder and even though I’m likely to years away from being ready to begin phase 2, my current plans are to keep the 12 homes as rentals for the precise reasons I outlined above.  

I really see Columbus Ohio as an extremely safe bet for the next 10-20 years.

You won't be able to buy in an already super trendy area with your budget however, so I'd look just outside of those to areas in the "path of progress".

I could have easily had double the portfolio I now own, and while I'm not complaining by any stretch of the imagination as RE has been very very good to me, it slowed my progress down significantly when interest rates were excellent and I should have been more willing to use leverage.

@Tom Gimer  I bet Tom being an owner of a title company and an attorney might be able to assist or comment on this scenario..

If that's the case, then your next best bet is really concentrate on your studies.

This seems like my best bet at the moment.