I had a good vibe from them too, and it was an absolutely miserable year of my life dealing with them.

A typical life cycle might be 5- 7 years from start to finish. 

I am 59 years old and have been in a related business my whole life.  

Finally, use all these numbers, including purchase price, repairs, rental income, expenses, and sales price or cash out refi after X number of years (you can play with these parameters) and calculate IRR on the series (can use the excel function to do this) ... this is your total return, over the life of the investment, including ALL sources of profit.

I don't believe they are bad investments as maximizing ROI is also important and many of those places have very healthy appreciation but if you are looking for positive cash flow we will need to stay in certain areas of Austin or head to Cedar Park, Round Rock, Kyle, etc which are still within 30 min from downtown Austin.

This probably goes without saying but also looking for a good CoC return and healthy cash flow (doesn’t everyone want this haha).Is there an industry publication which shows good markets which fit these criteria?

I love to be active and this includes working out, crossfit (I'm not one of those guys, trust me), camping, cycling, rock climbing and indoor bouldering, networking, hiking, and anything that involves building relationships.Looking forward to diving into real estate investing and beginning this new chapter of my life!  

Chris, I have lived here all my life and have come to the conclusion the only ones that knock Memphis or those that either don't really do anything but go to work and return home or have failed in one way or another and want to blame the city.  

Is it realistic to think that at some point in ones life, these areas will experience a revival- either because jobs returned or because of forced use because we need places to park people as the population grows? 

Fees for the loan, appraisal, etc are deducted over the life of the note, in my case that is 15 years.