People will rent homes in that area because they cannot yet afford to buy, but hope to buy a newer home in the future and keep the kids in the same school system and around their same friends.

A good PM can assist with initial analysis and either help you buy or knows someone who can help you buy.

You could force the seller to bring it up to code before the sale is complete as one of the contingencies of buying it, let them deal with it.

And it can work really well for you as long as you pay attention to the statute requirements.In order to defer all tax you are selling investment real estate and buying investment real estate of at least the same value you sold. 

Investment Info:Townhouse buy & hold investment.

Quote from @Jaycee Greene: Quote from @Mark Daniels: I know in residential lending you can get a HELOC to borrow a down payment to buy another property.

My realtor doesnt recommend buying this due to special assement unknown and HOA runs badly. 

This means that you will probably need to pay registration and filing fees in at least 2 states if you don’t buy CA property as a CA resident.Be sure to tell your accountant that you may now need to file non-resident income tax returns in each state where you own property as well.

Investment Info:Townhouse buy & hold investment.

i would not buy a random property in Alabama that you find on Zillow and turn it over to people you've never met just because the price point is appealing.here are some threads on how that can go:https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/1160450-run-i...https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/1215726-break...https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/1137397-balti...i own property in 3 states - happy to answer any questions you have.