Now, since I run a turnkey company in Birmingham, I may be biased, but I absolutely think AL is a great market to invest in.

I am a Pittsburgh native and recent engineering grad from Carnegie Mellon.

I run into to many people in this industry who don't seem to understand that everyone needs to have something that they are bringing to the table.Myself I have infrastructure, knowledge and connections in the Cleveland market as I own and operate an investment brokerage/construction company that has a pretty large portfolio.  

Investing is all about the numbers and when you can run your own comps you don't have to worry about someone else's numbers.

But its easy to run afoul of the prohibited transaction rules.

Buyers agents run around showing homes usually listed on a MLS. 

Being that I live and invest in Fargo, ND/Moorhead, MN, I have made it my duty to spread the importance of this distinction because I run into far too many out of state investors that associate ALL of ND and it's RE markets with the success of the Western ND oil industry.

(City, County, State, general contractor.....etc, Be specific)   Secondly, I'd run a google search and just start making phone calls.R/Dan

Many times a low appraisal is somewhat due to the appraiser's lack of knowledge of the area, but if it takes a very intimate knowledge of your immediate market to justify your price, you're probably going to run into the same problem with the next appraisal.

good concept Bryan, flipping vs buy and hold are keys to how wealth can be generated by using two different methods of investing aka envesting as i like to say, i'm a newbie in this industry my plan is to buy and hold rentals and later refinance the property and reap the benefits of the cash flow to purchase rehab and flip discounted properties that i find along the way, my strategy may be different than most but most of my educational coaching suggested looking at every deal as if it were flip and or rehab, i agree with Bryan, if i can get the cash flow and equity that buy and hold offers then that is the strategy that works best for me, but if i run across a flip/rehab that is worth my while then i execute accordingly but leverage is a important aspect of the buy and hold strategy will be implementing in my world.......good luck on your investing journey