Best of luck Exactly these areas of Detroit Cleveland et al are all D class .. out of area investors get their clocks cleaned every day of the week.. its only the locals that can make this work full stop. 

Investment flip I am about to say, specific to Birmingham/Huntsville, AL.

A friend referred me to the Alabama market and maybe getting a property that I could turn into a halfway house.

Add and remove door codes et al.

Places like Arizona, Texas, Indiana, Ohio, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, (AR TX IN OH GA AL TN), Which spells Artxinohgaaltn which means something fancy I’m sure, all offer great opportunities, for cash flow and safe growth.Make sure you team up with someone that understands how to put this together for you and at the same times teaches you how to use the best practices for learning investing in real estate like my SDIRA investors learn.

But I'm not sure if people get sick/symptoms from termites.What's worse is now I feel similar symptoms when I turn on my car fan / AC - and that makes me think its back to mold being the problem.If it is mold, I'm thinking I'll have to replace my AC unit (20+ years old) and al the ducting (probably about the same age).

I checked Alabama price there're still lot of homes that can be cash flowing and price wise, even in bay area in Dec 2022, it scaled back to 2019 era price, so discount is there. 

Alabama & Mississippi have this-- in some parts of AL you can really do a wonderful arbitrage. 

If you are strictly looking for cash flow then I would consider the Midwest and other southern markets like Ohio, Indiana, Memphis, Alabama, etc.

Quote from @Al Omran: Soren, your post resonated with me on so many levels man.