***You should also consider areas just outside of it too, like Casa Grande for example.You can help us help you by telling us a little more about yourself, your experience level, and what type of real estate investing you're looking to do (fix and flip, buy and hold, etc.)Plus, if you tell us what kind of property you're looking for or what returns you're hoping to get with your strategy, we'll better be able to point you in the right direction.

All in all i spent less than 6 grand in repairs and turned my 235k house into 280k in 2.5 years with minimal money and without the intent of flipping.  

I would not put 30 grand into a 14 k house but that’s just me .

So all it took for me to become ethical was a couple grand in loan fees?

That may make the hum-drum of your job a little more bearable in the meantime.3) Go All Out When You Retire: Maybe you could open up a woodshop in your garage or something once you retire, and offer classes to local kids.

Detroit, Metro Detroit, Grand Rapids the U.P. etc...

I don't know about your forests but in the Northwest Cedar is really high  then fir  then Hemlock then spruce .. saw log alder can bring good money occasionally.. but then you have the grand daddy of them all REDWOOD but that is a CA product.and you had big runs on Port Orford cedar that was used in Music instruments..  

Just remember that you need access to capital to keep doing deals so if you are limited on funds and tie it up in a rental property that makes you an extra few grand a year you may be limiting yourself to doing other projects.

One of my colleagues who has been doing this 25 years has picked up a grand total of three properties this way.

I found a good deal where I can make a couple grand.