As a techie I am partial to the DC area and potentially some other western cities resembling Seattle as it was 15 years ago, e.g.

I have been funding deals since about 2003 in Indy.. and many mid western cash flow cities.. and unfortunately west coast buyers just chase yield or cash flow and seem to have cash flow pounded into their head.. and so because its cheap they take excessive risk on low end hard to manage transient tenant base.. 

(Front Range Colorado areas) OR 81526, 81501-81507, 81521 (Western Slope of Colorado areas).

The only areas I would look at in Birmingham/ western Jefferson county are  homes  with Hueytown 35023 schools and McCalla 35111  with Mcadory high school.

We currently live in Western NY so it would initially all be from long distance. 

They are a bit stingy though on who they lend to since they hold those commercial loans in-house.My other 10% & 15% down residential portfolio lender can do most of the Western states including Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, pretty much all Western states except CA.

I'm currently investing in western Greene County, but was born and raised in Catskill, I should be able to make this time!

One suggestion to avoid insane prices might be to focus on the western Catskills where STR rental demand is still there but it's slightly out of the way (Delaware County, western Ulster County, even Schoharie County) Feel free to reach out!

Originally posted by @Russell Grevler:Hi Marija - I  bought my first property in the Western Catskills about 3 years ago.

That zip basically spans the entire N-S western center of the town.