I would also highly suggest making it a point to get up in the area as often as possible... especially early on.

Lots of these markets are mentioned often on BP so I figured I’d post it.https://www.glassdoor.com/List/Best-Cities-for-Jobs-LST_KQ0,20.htmThe markets I invest in (Cleveland and Memphis) as well as where I live (Raleigh) all make the top ten which I found interesting.

And with a good tenant buyer that is willing to pay in a little extra per month toward the down payment, you can get them to work... and ultimately collect your profit on the backend, or on the second and third lease option tenants if that plays out.The clear advantage of going this way is... if you dont find a "GOOD" lease option buyer, you are not obligated to the sellers... just let the bank take it like they were going to anyway.Pre-foreclosure lists are easy to find, and because getting a short sale completed is a numbers game there are often many sellers in that niche that could not get the short sale done, and are going to walk... you can cut your teeth on those until you get your system fine tuned.On a side note... the other way to go is to get a mailing list of absentee owners from your county tax rolls, or realquest.com.

Two points1) Buying your own home is often a good investment, but it is not ALWAYS a good investment.

A very close friend has 16 rental homes here in the area, he says vacancy is 100% all the time (never shortage of tenants) low turnover here, and low expenses.

Sure, we all want to invest in RE, we allwant to make money(somehow), and we all want to build wealth, but those are vaque objectives.I am still in the "convoluted" stage myself, but between spending time here, researching on the `net, reading, learning, asking questions, observing what others do, seeing what works and what doesn`t, doingsome soul-searching and self-evaluation as to my present circumstances, finances, abilities, knowledge(and acknowledging the lack thereof when warranted, which is often :lol: ), my own personal goals in RE are changing(from just a few months ago), and slowly becoming clearer and more well-defined.

The foreclosures occurred when the buyer ran off with the money or the "tenant" couldn't pay the mortgage and so on_sidebar_I'm personally a bit tired of the revisionist history often spouted by denizens of forums like these.

For example, significant damage done by tenants in excess of the security deposit (often thousands of dollars), is an expense that may only occur once in a many years.

Another "guru" argument is that you can get the "buyer" to do the maintenance, but the reality is that this is illegal in many states and even if it is not, the tenant often can't afford to do the maintenance or screws it up when they try to do it themselves.

You often hear a statement like "this cash flows" meaning the rent is higher than the PITI payment.