Cash flow is great and if you are confident in the Markets steady or rapid growth factors, you're safe.

I am 24 years old living in the Grand Rapids MI.

As I said in my first post, if you pick an area that sees rapid loss of population or employment, you could get hurt.

I've settled on the Raleigh area for purchase due to1) I like the area2) Raleigh and North Carolina seem to be on the upswing economically3)I have friends there & it's easy to visit.I'd like to buy 2-3 houses and I'm currently pre-approved for two $200K houses with 25% down.I've scanned houses and rental prices on Trulia & Redfin and what I'd really like to find is a few small single family homes around 3 bedrooms that I can rent out for $1050- $1300.

I'm excited to give it a shot and get away from paper receipts and scanning everything into my computer. 

Find a mentor who makes a living selling real estate right now.This business is rapidly changing.

We just broke out of a year or so slump and got two deals in rapid succession.

I know there are some here in Sioux Falls and Rapid City has been having success in areas. 

Personally, I believe that there is alot of motivated money here (as in other major coastal cities) and unless the rise happens rapidly there is alot of time to prepare/engineer/execute. 

Back in the 80's when I was growing up in north Idaho, climate people said the earth was cooling rapidly and our area would be covered by glaciers by 2020.The bottom line is that computer models are not terribly accurate (have never been accurate actually) and that no one truly knows exactly what will happen, when or why.