@Ned Carey : "Trust me there are plenty of duplexes and triplexes in Baltimore"The only places I have seen first hand have been the houses in Charles Village and those are pretty far out of my price range.

What you put at risk, 3+ years of work and equity gained would be for the hope of further appreciation and that being after wear and tear of a rental, not worth going there in my off hand opinion and after considering the opportunities with your cash proceeds from the sale, that puts renting further behind as a good choice.

The deal structure is just as important as the price because you get more into the income approach versus the sales comparison approach with SFR.How hands on you want to be, what returns you can find locally in your market, and you long term goals are key.I have some clients that want more yield and are willing to deal with headaches to get it.

@Kim H. and @David Edgerton - did you have to spend anytime in an actual classroom setting (for maybe the prep??)

If leaking supply line...you could have some big, hidden problems on your hands.

My wife and I are willing and able to do hands-on work to improve the the property for resale and increase rental income.Looking forward to chatting with some locals. :-)Cheers!

I've only read a few books so far, but will be taking a mentor class soon, from a mentor that lives right here in Hawaii for hands on training.

Target buy price is up to $500k or so; we have cash on hand to put about 50% down and fund the rehab, so just need money to cover roughly 50% of our purchase price...or we put minimal $ down (say 30%?)

All of my purchases were buy and hold.I'm sure being on the ground there can save you money and give you access to better deals, and if you're interested, I'm happy to refer you to the people I work with.I have an agent, lender, and property management company there, and everything I've done so far has been hands-off, except for a minimal amount of project management, and researching the deals.

In the end, they handed me a Robert Kiyosaki book, asked me to read it, and we set up another meeting in a few days from now.