Instead they made it look like HGTV.It is a tiny city in the middle of nowhere.

Scott,  Colusa is a small / Smallish farming community in the Central Valley of CA about 60 miles north of Sacramento and smack dab in the middle of the valley..

That also happened while we were in the middle of a deep recession and credit crunch, unlike today.

Even if you have a "perfect" house, it will not rent if not priced correctly, OR you will be overrented (yes that is a thing) meaning you are leaving money on the table.Marketing is also big - Again depending on the area you want to be on as many relevant channels as possible - Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, Zillow, Furnished Finder etc and have a direct booking strategy for repeat guests to cut out the middle men.Best of luck!

Hi @Amy WeaverFor flips I would say look on the east side of FW.

It seems there are a lot of low/middle class people trying to invest in real estate but the reality is that RE is a rich person's game.

If that isn't feasible for his situation I'd recommend looking for rentals in the southern/middle part of the country where price points are much easier and the laws are landlord friendly.

I am of course partial to KC but there are many east and west coast people that do invest here.

I'm past middle age and I would like to purchase a duplex to house hack in a better neighborhood.

For $800,000 to $1 million you could get a SFH in the East Bay suburbs.