@Matt Pritchard, sent you a PM...........I'm also interested in KS market and would love to chat more.

I'm hoping to build up a portfolio that will provide approx 5K a month in passive income by the time I retire in 8 years.Thanks again for your advice,Clay

Plus...escape velocity...Episode 113 – Jay Papasan - Very practical slow and steady adviceEpisode 221 - Tim Shiner - his concept of equity build up and "shearing the sheep" shows some of the flexibility of real estate vs a 401k Last but not least, I strongly recommend all the tax advice given by my fellow CPAs.Amanda HanBrandon HallTax Reform Update – Brandon Hall and Amanda Han Linda Weygant GuidesUltimate Beginners Guide Forum StickiesBP Calculators or spreadsheets uploaded by membersMy Favorite Books I have to say all of the BP books…right?

Jenny,Great question as there is indeed a lot of focus placed predominantly on cash flow that makes the returns associated with out of state appear to be the way to go.However, real estate returns are obtained from 4 areas: cash flow, appreciation, tax benefits & equity build up through amortization. 

The Eastwood neighborhood in K-Zoo is an old neighborhood, assuming we are looking at the place. 

If you do that though you can't actually take out any of the cashflow...because the problem with CapEx is that it doesn't actually cost just 8% of your rent. when it come it comes big and heavy, so you'll need to be able to build up to having that reserve account...some people like to gamble and will take it out...I personally don't recommend taking cashflows from your real estate until you're much further along with much larger reserves.

We do lease options so that we have time to help them build up a good down payment and purchase the property at the end of the lease period. 

The idea is for the cash flow to build up and cover repairs.

It's a great way to learn the market and build up cash.

So basically they dont know what they are doing and hoping for a quick buck.The DD is the BPO ($125+), title search ($125+, different than a typical search as you need to see the assignments are recorded), file review (to include the original blue inked note and mtg, allonges, assignments, servicing notes, etc.) which is typically done by you or you will need to pay someone about $300 to do it.Most note investing is numbers, so you need to know what youre doing, planning for, what the owners options are before making an offer, then plan to throw it all out the window if need be and regroup.