Vacancy rate: I've bought in blue collar area called international city, which has the lowest vacancy rates in the country.

I am a new investor starting out from the Twin Cities.

The area is very desirable, it's like the Orange County of the city. 

@Chris Mason Since we've been in a really strong market.....if Im making an offer on a property where I can get an appraisal contingency (suburbs I can, city I cant) and I know the listing agent is going to be subpar and not get the property to appraise (in my opinion this is the listing agents #1 duty) Ive been putting into the contract "seller will cure any appraisals issues that arise by making any required repairs and adjusting the price down to the appraisal value."  

They literally can ebb and flow from one street to the next in a city or region.2. 

Just waiting in city permits at the moment!

My price cap was $300K, so a bit under yours, but anything mid-cities was a good market.

I am interested in investing in TX/NYC/NJ and leverage the Veteran benefits (like VA home loan) and my disability benefits (full property tax exemption in some states like TX or NJ)I have about 75-100K to invest, VA Home loan, TX VLB Loan, NY home for veteran loans and other states have similar loan programs for veterans.my biggest debate is whether to buy my first property in Hudson County NJ (jersey city, Hoboken) or DFW TX.another thing, anyone has experience doing business with Federal or state government?

Once there look up the city where property is.

@Julian Pilate-Hutcherson We work almost exclusively with OOS investors and it's a mixed bag...I sold 3 MF properties this month to folks that have never been to the state...and I have another set of clients that have been in the market for months and make routine visits to the city...I think it has a lot to do with comfort-level...truth told, we can leverage technology and get every possible detail on the table for review to make a pretty informed buy/pass decision...combined with an inspection and appraisal, there is really no need to be here in person looking at deals....