Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think your final point would be to stick with renting if renting in the area where you want to live and investing out of state with the capital you would otherwise use to purchase in that market outweighs the benefits of purchasing in that market.

But like Dawn said; if they are long term; have a good payment history and communicate up front then the pros can outweigh the cons.

@Beau WalshIn English Bay I think you'd have reasonably responsible tenants and that the charm of it would outweigh the drawbacks.

The benefit of seller financing may outweigh the higher rate but you won't know until you crunch the numbers.

@Tom Ott local knowledge can certainly outweigh market-level statistics, but here's what it looks like for the Cleveland MSA as a whole (which is Cleveland proper + surrounding areas):Still not good.

The potential cost of missing something that an agent would catch can outweigh that cost significantly.  

However, given how few are sub metered, I imagine the cost far outweighs the value. 

If I left 20% of money in the deal, the ROI is 5% x 5 = 25%.In my analyses, the ROI of the appreciation + mortgage paydown (i.e. amortization) outweighs the ROI I'm able to get on the CF using a lower LTV refi loan.  

Hi Priscilla S.I will tell you what my thought process was in using debt vs free and clear properties:Benefit of having mortgages:You can buy lot more properties by leveragingYour Cash on Cash return is higher when leveraged vs owing free and clear propertyAs your properties appreciate and you don't use the equity, you are making no return on that increase in valueBenefit of paying off mortgage:You get peace of mind by not having to worry about mortgagesHonestly, for me having peace of mind outweighed the benefits of having mortgages.

Monthly mortgage & interest, property tax, closing costs, etc.) as well as any maintenance costs will outweigh the potential profit you'll receive from it (e.g. rental income if buying-and-holding, or ARV if fixing-and-flipping).The best thing to do is to learn and understand EVERYTHING that has to be paid for when buying a house and then using the BP Calculators to evaluate whether you have a positive ROI or not.