We are also a great place for renters who work at the massive Mercedes Benz plant just west of the city.We invest only in solid B class homes with an average rent of $950 - which leads me to a quick point about your comment about C class and sub-$60k properties.

I live in South Florida and love our little tropical paradise even though it's 48 degrees right now ;-)It's a new year and I'm going for my dream of real estate investing.

They have a lot of plants there, but keep in mind with advancement in technology, the positions are not blue collar jobs you are thinking about in the 1990's or earlier.

That's exactly how I got started in REI and I look at it like I'm planting seeds right now and will start to see the great results of my efforts in 5 years or so.

I planted the seed. 

We took a hit with the closure of some auto plants in 2008/2009, but things have turned around since and prices are higher now than they were before the recession.

If you are bored in the sea you can hiking in the tropical forest, only 20 minutes away, at night witnessing lava flowing from Mauna Loa eruption.

@Nathan G. for investors that want to purchase an STR in a tropical (US) location, do you know of any alternatives that are more STR friendly? 

Source: I'm an Engineer in a Fireplace manufacturing plant. 

Does it have a central heating and cooling plant or individual HVAC units.