They rent to university students from their church, providing room and board and a family environment.

Don't get me wrong, I have my 17-18 hour days too, but I'm not exactly overwhelmed with those numbers and I have zero of my dollars in any of them.Jeff is spot on, in this environment, the deals are harder to come by than the cash. 

Maybe go to some investment meet ups just to get in the environment.

Should i decide based on cost, surrounding area ( such as environment or homes) ,or what??

there are pro and cons of owning real estate in a LLC or personal name.Personal Name - Better Rates, less headache for the mortgage, Don't need to go thru that crazy environment phase 1 review, can only deduct interest mortgage and property tax.LLC - Asset Protection, ALot of things becomes expensable. 

Not only does attract better people, it creates for a better environment.

You are taking money out of a tax-advantaged environment and putting it to work in a taxable environment.

. - Because the Bay Area is such a boom/bust environment, I wanted to cash in on the equity I had built up on my most recent purchase (the SJ condo) and move that money to a more stable real estate market. - Areas I looked into, Indianapolis, Atlanta, San Antonio, Cleveland, Memphis, parts of Florida. - First filter - any city that I read about that had good purchase prices compared to rental income I considered.

I found a mentor in Dallas that I trusted and it enabled me to get the confidence up to purchase single family homes strictly for rental income in Dallas while I lived in Albany, NY.Now I have 10 deeds, 18 units as well as partial owner ship in 80 apartment units (doors) and live off the cashflow.I would suggest networking as much as you can in environments were investors have the abundance mentality and freely share information.  

However, given the current environment of rising house prices and interest rates, I'm curious to hear how this is affecting folks' strategies and outlooks.