Originally posted by @Andrew Lastivka:Hello, I am a new STR investor and looking for an agent in Central, Ohio and Fort Lauderdale, FL, and surrounding Phoenix, AZ area who specializes in STR's that can assist in buying properties and/or rental arbitrage.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

An unencumbered outlook is therefore necessary to provide some comfort in the gnarly world of distressed property.

Is anyone still active in the Houston Area?

$200,000 in 401K, rental mortgage payoff is $130,000.

Quote from @Tove Fox: I live in California and am interested in purchasing my first investment property in an A or B neighborhood in one of the above states, ideally under $300k.

My wife and I use to live in central GA and in North Carolina but moved out to Arizona a couple years ago.

4.Tips to avoid similar issues in the future?

I'm interested in purchasing land.

Cost segregation can be a complicated topic, but I tried to break it down and make it easy to understand!Here is a newly created resource on BiggerPockets, which touches out cost segregation, accelerated depreciation,...