I'm confident the angles have all but been plugged up over the last six or seven years.

You should make a big Pro/Con chart for renting an apartment vs buying a house.Renting an apartment:Pros: Little to no maintenance on your end, save a bunch on not paying property taxesCons: Not building equity (aka you don't own anything), proximity to neighborsBuying a housePros: mortgage interest deduction, after X years you own something that you can sellCons: Maintenance, taxes, insuranceBuying a property like a duplex and living in one side and renting out the other:Pros: Your tenants help pay for your mortgage and other expenses, you get to learn how to be a good landlordCons: You live close to your roomates albeit seperate units (this could be a pain in the butt if you have crappy tenants)Hope this helps!

Welcome to BP@AC Cara stay plugged in!

If you have "extra cash" are you going to go buy a boat (plug other temptation) you shouldn't?

Makes me want to get my butt in gear lol.

Michael Blank's Syndicated Deal Analyzer (SDA) is good but don't just buy it and start plugging the numbers from the pro forma in.

Or really even wholesalers in any of the major cities around here, like Butte, Helena, Billings, Kalispell. 

From there I plug counties/zip codes into sites like Trulia looking for reasonably priced homes.

Yes Kayla, after getting plugged into bigger pockets, listening and reading up and hearing all the inspiring stories I was ready to take the plunge.

To me, it looks similar to the Butte market (but a little further for me to travel to from Bozeman).