These questions will help you determine which real estate investing strategy is going to help you achieve your goals.

Hi Noah, those are two separate things depending on what you are trying to achieve. 

We have found our highest risk adjusted returns are achieved when we purchase assets we understand in areas we are familiar with where there are multiple options to generate adequate returns.

But if you are experienced in building, have the deals and there is demand, and you can achieve rents that make sense for the costs and risks, go for it. 

(had to)First thing to know is the #'s you can achieve in rural micro-markets will seem to good to be true in comparison to much of what you read, that is actually the standard your best served using, I call it "ludicrous math" (Spaceballz shout out). 

Only those who can see the invisible can achieve the impossible!

To plan this route you need to account for how much cash you have to invest, how much time are you willing to dedicate, how much knowledge do you have, what skills could you provide, what aspects interest you, and what you want to achieve.

To get started, I set some ambitious targets of the returns I want to achieve (6-7% cash on cash return with 20-25% down, estimated appreciation of 2-3% per year). 

The biggest thing to do now is to mitigate you risk while also achieving high enough clasflow yields that keep you in the green while also given your renters the ability to be flexible.

I want to maximize my returns and try and achieve REP status on my tax return, therefore allowing depreciation (and other benefits) to occur as a page 1 item on my tax return.