I bet David Greene's book on BRRR is good, too.

Houses in rough shape aren't always going to be an indicator of a motivated seller, people who have been there for a while (high equity or absentee owner) would be a better bet. 

But to me that is still a better long-term bet for all of the reasons you mentioned.

Do it, I bet you’ll be surprised at how many folks start showing up. :) I’m an active duty investor.

you will have local ST Louis hard money lenders I bet many will accept private funds.. and with the low value collateral there you can probably own a whole loan there..

I'd recommend staying away from 35810, but 35801,35802,35756,35741,35763, and 35806 would all be generally safe bets. https://www.zipmap.net/Alabama/Madison_County/Huntsville.htmThe path of progress is really from downtown due West toward Madison. 35816 is in that path, its a lower income neighbor hood now but in 5-10 years you are gonna see that turn around a good bit.

If you live anywhere inside the 610 loop west of downtown, I would bet that 75% of the homes are condos or townhomes. 

That's correct Curtis.We have in house property management and Realty.Hired a "retired" broker also so our agents can work through now an in house brokerage also :)The contract saga of all this is finally coming to an end lolLots of jibba jabba legalitiesI bet our attorneys love us right now haha $$$Thanks

Also wondering if other Texas cites like Dallas-Fort Worth or San Antonio that aren't so strongly tied to the oil and gas market might be a safer bet?

@Scott Trench    OK  lets take long term... buy a home in Cupertino or Palo Alto in 1995 for 450k and apple stock at what ever it was at.homes have tripled to quadrupled in the last 20 years and of course 100 to 200k of apple stock back then is probably worth 10 to 30X  not a stock guy but I bet its somewhere.that I why silicon valley is what it is.. no need to go any further than there.get a high paying job... buy the right company stock buy a personal resi  HOLD for 20 to 30 years retire rich.. nothing more nothing less