In our situation, to get anywhere close to a decent cash-on-cash return, I'm guessing we'd have to limit ourselves to studios and 1BD condos within the city, or properties just across the border in Maryland or Virginia.

That would be a fair deal for bucktown if numbers are accurate and it's actually within the border of bucktown proper (many agents lie about this)...

Mc Allen TX on the Mexican border also does not have a WFM so it was not included.

If you live on the border of two states and you rental is 15 min away in another state, you don’t count!!! 

It was a gut call but we just didn't like the burbs on the Indiana side of the border (Hence why we also explored Indy) Our primary problem with the numbers at the time was there just wasn't enough sales activity for us to pull the trigger.

The strategy that works in these areas is fix and flip (add-a-level) in towns that either have a train line (NJT or LIRR) or border a town that has one.

When it comes to anything even bordering on edge of equity stripping, I wouldn't want to take any risk at all, especially one of a technicality type such as disaster declaration.

Hi @Myles Penner I will recommend that you speak with a cross border accountant who may be able to advise on the most tax-efficient structure.You can PM me if you need further information.

@Ryan Dossey  If you approach someone who has lived in a house for thirty years who heard of the RE crash and thinks their property is not worth much and you play on that to get a lower price then you might be on the border of theft, morally if not legally.

You might think about doing a different color border instead.