Ultimately all depends on how much you can hold, longer term nothing will beat bay area not even all the cashflows people talk about in BP, history is an indicator of it, refer to Dan's responses in above thread.

Ask how good are the schools, things that renters would and should ask about.

I'm looking at areas with good schools, low crime, appreciating property values looking in the past 10 years.

Credit Score is about 650 for each of the couple. 90k revolving credit card debt..with utilization > 95%.However rental history is good.

The HVAC contractors have to have schooling , special equipment , trucks , office , employees , tools , insurance , licenses , and much more .

Taxes and insurance on both are pretty comparable.The first house is in a very stable, residential neighborhood in the best school corp in the area and houses seem to be increasing in value there.

People respect knowledge.) experience (If you have a history of completing deals successfully, either for your clients or yourself, experience is very helpful to share. 

What's most important for you:A- providing housing for children to live in while in school?

I currently moved back home to Los Angeles after Law School to save up some money (emergency fund and for general real estate investing).

We purchased a lot of properties in independence-we go off of the school districts mainly.