Their opinions generally seem to be spot on with my experience in driving these zipcodes.

I also think the people who prey on people looking to make money in RE with little work and $ are immoral as they're making money selling a system that they know won't work (it's like selling shovels to gold prospectors and pointing them to a spot where you know there's no gold) Perhaps I could have been more specific but a sprinkle of hyperbole makes life interesting. 

I found the sweet spot eventually by renting a really nice place at a bargain in between the two, owning rentals in the small town, and running the work from home business that serviced the major city. 

The liability protection I posted is spot on, but the tax advantage is not.

When I was flipping in a 50s cookie-cutter neighborhood, a realtor once told me that a bungalow would fetch $85,000 on the spot, and a colonial, $95,000.

@Jay Neil is spot on - it's MARKETING.

They filled out an application on the spot.

I think a lot of us are tire kickers until we feel we have enough education to be able to spot a deal as well as be able determine what type of REI fits our tolerance/goals.

Conventional only allows a borrower to qualify up to 45% and if they have a large down and 12 months reserves on a lucky sunny day they might get up to 50% DTI.- FHA can qualify on their 5/1 Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) at a payment based just on the starting note rate while conventional 5/1 ARM's have to qualify at the starting note rate + 2.00% fully amortized payment which rocks your DTI ratios and makes it a lot harder to qualify for.

I can tell you the ARV on the property is going to be around $380K, so it may be out of your sweet spot.