Make a trip to the city that you would like to invest in, and try to get the feel of the environment, talk to local realtors there before you make any commitment to buy.

I invest out of state and this has been key to my success so far and ease with the process.

You could transition a unit to short term or furnished month to month to achieve 1% These are both great strategies in a campus environment and have worked well for my house-hacked triplex near Ohio State University

It doesn't sound like you're living in a safe environment now. 

Check your contribution limits with your cpa. most likely the money not invested in an asset is making little to no interest in today’s environment.

Do you want to find houses in areas that will sell quickly and have a lot of demand.In this current highly competitive environment You need to be looking at hundreds of properties and talking to hundreds of sellers to get a deal.

In today's environment, you have to start thinking about your social media as an accessory to your bigger marketing strategy.Yes, you can go viral and collect 1m followers who will give you organic deal flow -- but let's assume that won't happen.

I want to stay in the Eastern NC area for my first property due to ease of travel and familiarity (somewhat) with the area.

In the long run I hope you are right about the Milwaukee market - we have limited housing stock and the city is almost fully built out between the lake and the expensive suburbs, so we have a finite supply of old houses that keep aging - the perfect environment for launching a remodelling business I guess.  

I bet those leftovers helped ease the pain of a resident dashing out in the night!