Agreed, just the fact that you are having this question is a bad sign of your lender.

It's not perfect, no place is, but of the choices available it should rank very high on the list.Phoenix doesn't have hurricanes like the deep south and the east coast.

@Ricardo Cristobal That's not necessarily a bad thing.

One Bad house on an otherwise good street can be problematic.

I've been looking and I came across Real Estate express but the reviews are half good and half bad.

If you told the lender you were going to live in the property and they wrote the loan based on that information and you didn't live in the property, that is a bad thing and is illegal. 

Was it a good or a bad experience?

Maybe we just had some bad luck the first year but it was a pretty hands on experience.  

Not too bad in todays local market if it's well taken care of and somewhat updated, but like @David Bardwell said, forget the purchase price until you're finished analyzing.

If I was in your situation, since you say there are repairs to be made anyway, I would say it's not a bad option to get a hard/private money loan to pay off the arrears and do the repairs, then do a cash out refi in 6-12 months to pull your money back out.