If before getting a permit you have to dance around for Code Dept officials/ city gov and crime is thru the roof, investments will definitely be low whether real estate or other, but it should be benefiting the city officials to keep things that way.

Our builder is Bill Lowe, who we really like so far.

It's essential to do your due diligence and perhaps consider investing in more established or upcoming neighborhoods.Property Taxes: New Mexico's property taxes are relatively low in comparison to other states.

Meet with a local banker & schedule a time to talk with a mortgage broker, they'll give you at least a baseline of what kind of down payment options and rates are out there.After that, if you're still wanting to research more creative options, do some looking into seller financing (a very hot topic with good, and bad, advice out there), look into private lenders, and commercial financing options.If you're wanting to live in 1/4 of your quadplex, then conventional residential loans may in fact be your best option as you can purchase that with a fannie/freddy loan with very low down, and use up to 75% of the income from the property toward your own income. 

However, I like that there isn't a lot of work to do and I could still make the property really cute with not much risk.Inventory is so low.

The rules are designed to prevent related parties from engaging in exchanges that shift high basis property for low basis property, followed by a sale of the low basis property, effectively "cashing out" without recognizing gain.If you sell a property to a related party as part of a 1031 exchange, both you and the related party must hold the exchanged properties for at least two years following the exchange.

Starting with a trailer is a smart, low-cost option.

At the time, his offer was low, and I had potential plans for that space, so I turned him down.

Appreciation of an asset with low down payment, tenants paying principle down, tax advantages, all reasons why real estate is an investment of DOING.   

cash flow has just been hit hard everywhere with the rise in interest rates. the properties in my portfolio that cash flow the most are at interest rates that it's not possible to get anymore - low 4s - and somehow there is still tremendous demand for properties that won't cash flow or break even, which is what you're finding.based on what you've said about your current situation... i don't have a good answer for you.