It’s less than 15 minutes by car from two major universities (Towson & Morgan) and just a 7-minute walk from a shuttle that services both campuses.I plan to rent the property by the room, targeting mainly college students due to its proximity to the schools.

@Janine Sharma The decision to classify your onsite mobile home park property manager as a W-2 employee or a 1099 contractor depends on the degree of control you have over their work.

Pricing at the time of the purchase, close to the university and the university frats.

We still find buyers (and renters) that like open to a degree but want / need the office space for remote or hybrid work arrangements.When dealing with a market that does not have huge spreads on properties, one needs to define what is really important versus what is nice to have and see if the math works. 

I invest in Boise, ID and do quite a few BRRRRs, LTRs and STRs- varying degrees of success depending on how much equity we can force and the type of back end financing we can find, but the tax benefits are great and it's a rapidly growing market and Idaho is probably the most landlord friendly state in the nation. 

With a budget of $300K-$400K, you could potentially find single-family homes or small multi-units in those areas.I'd recommend researching rental demand near universities like Duke or NC State or even checking out neighborhoods with strong job growth near tech hubs.

@Collin Hays My favorite that came in at 6am one morning when the nights low temperature was 58 degrees and the high temperature was to be around 75 was the following.

I'm just not seeing any strategy that can offset to any significant degree, the depreciating nature of either asset.  

Of course it isn't going to work for everyone...then again, I also have many friends with degree's that cost them 6 digits that cannot get a job in their field!

As for the third target market, Sacramento is close to you, it's a state capitol, relatively inexpensive, two major universities, great local culture...