I would not especially want to live down there, but I just bought and renovated a few units in a 4plex down on a pretty nice street in East Oakland.

I haven't posted in a while because I am in the middle of class right now.One of my coworkers is also a reactor operator new hire and is having a hard time selling his house in North Carolina (Lincolnton, NC 28092).

I just completed my first spec on the EAST coast and I live in Oregon... we sold at a little over 200 a foot ... bought the lot for 45k.. so nice margins on that one..

In fact they haven't even set a date of when that would happen but the futures market for interest rates indicate a rate hike could come sometime in middle 2015.

I'm in the middle of my real estate class, actually.  

Nice to see another East Tennessean here.

I am looking on the east coast.  

A good REI meetup to go to, is at Woodhaven Country Club in East Fort Worth every Saturday at 9am.

An A property in an A area will have a much lower cap than a C/D property in a C/D area.Also, properties on the west or east coast will simply have worse caps than say the rust belt.In your area Mesa caps > Glendale caps > Phoenix caps (generally speaking).

You can always get a private money loan (typically 8.5% annual interest rate on a 30-year amortized loan with 1 point upfront with a maximum 65% LTV with a middle FICO score of 650).God Bless You!