I'm from Baltimore, but my wife grew up outside of Erie so I occasionally check out the RE market up there and the prices seem pretty reasonable.

As an occasional smallish OK or soso deal with decent long term prospects comes up I'll probably take it.

Although we still have an occasional shooting or fight outside (or people riding down the sidewalk on a motorcycle), we now have $800k+ SFHs being built on lots that were sold for

You don't have to fly down if you don't want to, you don't have to deal with tenants, you don't have to handle maintenance, you just collect net rents every month and occasionally give your go ahead if something big comes up.

But I lived that life for 3 months and it isn't unmanageable either.Here are some tips if you are living there:  goose down comforter, heavy blankets, space heaters, crockpot, microwave, electric griddle, heat water with your coffee maker to wash dishes, stand away from the shower spray and bathe more sponge bath style.  

@Steve Vaughan, while none of my units have a fridge with a water line, they all have dish washers. 

Back home in Jersey, as you know, we call that someone who can dish it but he can't take it.

I suspect there is an occasional verification that the reported submeter water is accurate. 

I figure for the larger home and its larger groups, guests will occasionally want to congregate around the television or use it as childcare.

I would cut my expenses out as much as possible (no cable/dish/netflix, limited eating out and going to bars, etc), work at the job for another 3 months or so to save as much as possible and then go all in.