According to my analogy, if you had been already living in the NC Triangle and finding it hard to find your desired Cap Rate, and wanted to try your luck in LA instead, that would be like "jumping from the frying pan into the fire"...Brent I like your analogiesJoe Henry:I live in LA and it costs a huge amount of money just to breathe here Operating budgets near the water meaning near the pacific  ocean are  9 to 10,000 a month gross for a not so nice apartment and living expensesMy median home price is  around 800,000 for modest houseFlippers are spending 10 to 20,000 a month on marketing because it's so expensiveNorth Carolina I think has great opportunity to get into college housing because of the North Carolina University and state schoolsAlso look at buying on installment sale for free and clear housesAnd for houses with no equity look at lease purchaseI would get licensed and look for problems

Hey @Chris RichardsonDiversification is a great idea no matter what you are investing in.This can mean investing in different types of real estate and different markets or even different investments.One strategy that we've been working on building is using a indexed universal life insurance policy as a way to build wealth and create our own 'bank' for investing in new properties as well.Hope this helps!

The city has a number of large colleges and universities, of which are surrounded by neighborhoods of around 40-60 y/o houses. 

I am a graduate of the George Washington University Law School and a member of the Florida, New Jersey and American Bar Associations.JeraldB1

I don't know whether or not it was the correct advice or how universal it is (that is, it may be suitable only for the state of Ohio - or not at all for all I know) but I have followed it - thus far without repercussion. 

I'm thinking about buying a house to live in while attending university and renting the rooms to other students to pay for the mortgage and other such bills, good or bad idea?

The universal laws of attraction will compensate you more then any referral fee.

I've come to accept that unless you are a university, you aren't getting property tax breaks in Providence.  

House hacking near a university has great potential.Bigger Pockets has various resources: ebooks, blogs, forums, podcasts, webinars, colleagues, keyword alerts, an awards system, a learn section, informative people in many fields of real estate, and more.

Simple contracts and assignments can be pretty universal, but experiences investors will have certain clauses that they stick in to cover issues that arise locally.