In my experience, Banks make it really difficult to obtain a mortgage and I have never been able to succeed in obtaining a loan with them for investment purposes simply because they require a certain amount of DTI ratios.

-A property with a 30 year mortgage would be neutral cash flowing, but in a solid location and with strong demand. 

The most obvious is that you will be able to offset your mortgage with renting out a few rooms.

I know there does not seem to be a strong presence on BP for people in the New River Valley area (Pulaski, Radford, Blacksburg, Roanoke) but I would like to try and get some type of networking event going (either in person or in an online group). 

The CoC is great and we don't have a mortgage on the condo, however the current market value of the condo is about ~200k, so very less appreciation in last 10 yrs.Should I sell the condo and invest ~200k (minus fees) to buy an investment property with 30-40% down in an area (Durham, Raleigh) where I could expect greater appreciation down the road.

Online Rent Payment (please tell me you still don't collect rent in person).

Here's my situation:Debts$127K loan @ 16.99% for an investment property rehab - $1963/months fixed$50K Heloc against primary obtained when rates were low and has since adjusted to market (high) rate $36K (three business credit cards at diff rates, lowest at 22% apr)IncomeMortgage 1 income after expenses (primary carrying the heloc -) - $600/monthMortgage 2 income (also primary) - $ 162/month ( not enough equity in this to sell right away ($70k) but area is growing like crazy)Mortgage 3 income (investment) - $720/monthMortgage 4 income (this is the property the127k loan was taken against) - $856/month - This is the one i am considering selling.

Trying to cover all of your mortgage while living in one of the rentable units may work if you are willing to put down a larger down payment (all of that 100k). 

I don't know, but you would 100% want to check in with the existing optometrist, maybe they don't get "walk in" business anyways and do not care and wouldn't mind the like-minded neighbors (I've had mortgage neighbors before, and do not care -- I do mortgages they don't, case in point office mortgages across the country, so I wind up getting business from them), but an ice cream shop is going to be LIVID if you rent the unit next store to a frozen yoghurt shop, since that's a LOT of walk-in business that's now getting split two waysAnd then to make it really fun, here's the question I'll throw back at you.

The majority of mortgage borrowers today have rates below 6%.This means that sellers have to be VERY motivated to sell.