You will quickly know the areas you are comfortable in and the ones you would personally avoid.

@Andrew Fava it really comes down to what youre comfortable doing.

I'm a new investor and didn't feel comfortable with any property managers so I'm managing myself.

I would advise looking at how rentals performed in the last downturn and not buying unless you're comfortable with how things performed in the past when there was a hit.

While you are learning the business, identify your criteria for investments that you are comfortable with.

I know it probably looks like I'm biased, because I'm in this market, but really I moved to this market in large part for the favorable real estate environment.

Do you like the comfort of knowing you locked in the gains cashed out and live in TX?  

I think you should set a comfortable price range and that will narrow it down to the different options you may have.

I'm very interested in real estate investing, but I want to get some feedback from the community, as I'm not entirely sure that it's for me.I'm unmarried with no kids, so I've always required very little in order to be have privacy and be comfortable.

I just don’t think I would be comfortable at all with what my mortgage payments would be here on MAUI if I were to buy.