If you have a BAD tenant experience on this property as a rental and lose several months of rent and incur substantial tenant damage that is all coming out of pocket whereas if you had even a handful of rentals the performing rentals and the monies budgeted for capex/maintenance/vacancy will carry that sort of loss.

I live in an increasingly expensive market. 

While I might be new to this particular market, my roots in real estate run with a history of commercial real estate investments in India.Currently, I have my sights set on the Hartford market.

For those familiar with this market; what is bringing the guests (tourism, professional, mix of both)? 

It's always a good idea to actually fly out to the market you're considering and meeting your team in person.

Study the market.

Issue is he is paying 750$ a month for the 3br/1ba unit, market value for the area for the same type of unit is $1,819.  

They survived the market crash and the pandemic for good reason.

and/orcan you pick a market 1-3 hours away from Seattle and look there?

I'll most likely fix and flip, but I'm also considering holding if the rental market is promising.Does anyone have experience in this area?