The south east is very beneficial from a tax standpoint and price points are so increasing at a predictable rate and we still have a housing shortage.

Make sure you develop a great model to predict what your income and expenses will be so you come out on top...not in the hold.

but if you have CASH being a lender is far better than being a landlord.. the return is much more predictable, and as long as you know what your doing ( many note investors get burned just like people buying out of state) but if you get good notes... you will have a much better success rate over time.now investing in markets that will appreciate is another matter.. but when you talk about low end rentals being a note investor will be much better in the long run  if done correctly. and your not paying huge mark ups like you do when you used LA based marketing companies.

@Jay Hinrichs   I think you'll see a different market dynamic and strategy this time around with Hedge funds, and I predict this will primarily be a result of continuing efficiencies and creativity in the SFR rental securitization market.  

Otherwise, I predict a future post titled, "My tenant is complaining that her electric bill is too high!"

Inflation is hard to predict, too.

There is no magic formula which predicts future events.

In that case, there is not a lot that you can do besides 1) sweeten the deal for them, and 2) in lieu of a track record, keep track of some of these deals that you have done and show how you were right in predicting the outcome (maybe the sale price) when they are done.

It's a tougher course to navigate but the ability to refi is so hard to predict that you're much better off with a plan to simply divest paid off properties over time.

Every downturn in the RE market was predicted...at least 20 times before it actually happened (like now), but when it did happen, it destroyed a lot of people that were counting on it.