Tampa Orlando and Pensacola are considered good but competitive markets, Stay near universities too ...univ of Tampa and Fsu and FCU all good for student rentals

As we get into more rural locations the universe of potential buyers shrinks.  

In the meantime, we just bought the MHP University home study stuff and are trying to educate ourselves fast! 

I'm thinking about a buy and hold opportunity for a luxury town home 2 miles south of Texas A&M University in College Station TX. 

In todays environment depending on location in the country ground up loans are virtually impossible if you do not have significant cash and experience..

I have another question for you all and I'd love to hear some insight on some more outside views before I make my decision.I'm about to buy a property within 5 miles of the major university campus and the property is going for 110k.

On the other hand if you don't get it figure the Universe is looking out for you and whoever overpaid for it is saving you a lot of problems down the road.

I'd definitely aim to be near a university as that will be the majority of folks in that market.

My partner likes to say we invest in the SEC (South Eastern Conference).I know that many of our members are looking at Columbus due to the govt jobs and university.

You can argue that you have to live somewhere anyway, so you're saving the rent or mortgage costs, but technically you could live under the bridge or in a tent or in your car for free/virtually free, so that's not entirely accurate. - You get all this already because as you admit you're somewhere in between, which is the smart place to be :)  I'm right there with you - most of my properties are F&C, but I also understand that I am trading return for lower levels of aggravation - i.e., my investment doesn't require as much of my time & energy as it would if I wanted greater returns.