I think a person with a reasonably healthy psyche can be happy any number of places.

You'll need to do your due diligence on the HOA to make sure it's healthy and allows rentals. 

With the stricter lending requirements that have been in place and the jobs that are being created (about 3000 per month), we still have healthy fundamentals. 

I can learn about REI and still create a healthy W2!

Significantly reducing that expense through RUBS should an easy way to boost the NOI by a healthy fraction of the gross.

I don't necessarily want to make real estate investing my fulltime career, but a very lucrative side hustle to my own business in holistic wellness and urban farming.In 2009, I WAS looking to make real estate investing my fulltime career, mostly as a wholesaler but I've since realized that I do not have a passion for that particular niche, but I do love the flexibility, cash flow, and wealth creation that building a healthy property portfolio provides.At any rate, I look forward to FINALLY engaging with people on the forums, learning, DOING, and sharing with others.

To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent peopleand the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest criticsand endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty;To find the best in others;To leave the world a bit better, whether bya healthy child, a garden patchor a redeemed social condition;To know even one life has breathedeasier because you have lived; This is to have succeeded.

Gathering the Decision Information You NeedBelow I did a basic comparison between Phoenix and Las Vegas.Some observations:Both cities appear to be healthy and growing.Phoenix property prices are likely be lower and appreciate more slowly than Las Vegas due to unlimited urban sprawl.

To your point in most parts of UT there is healthy demand and so rents should not drop.

You also need a healthy emergency fund because roofs and furnaces don't last forever.Hard money - you better know what you're doing and how you're going to get out from under that debt if you're paying that much interest.