Hey Nate, it makes sense to continue building out your investment portfolio in Milwaukee, but if you're looking in the Midwest, I recommend you make sure you get very familiar with the market you're interested in and build your out-of-state team first such as an agent, property manager, lender, and contractors if you're planning on house flipping.I recommend checking out Long-Distance Real Estate Investing by David Greene, where he takes you through how to properly invest out-of-state. 

Just a rate does not show what options people can find on the market place.I just locked a loan at 5.99% with 1.15 points and no prepayment penalty for an investor.

I recently added a half bathroom in a market where half bathrooms are worth ~$50k.  

I just recently read, after my initial post, that meals with clients are 50% deductible if not "lavish" in price. 

Not sure what market your in but if you can find something that you can potentially at the very least break even then that's a win in this market.

There is a lot of uncertainty in the market for institutional capital, which funds a lot of these types of loans. 

With savings rates so high I'd save in a money market mutual fund until I had enough to get rid of PMI on my primary.

The offers I'm getting are off market offers through a broker.

Off-market property, which is likely the case if you were buying from a wholesaler, has no financing or appraisal contingencies most of the time.  

I gave them their initial start money and then didn't hear anything about the project.