I went ahead and created a pros/cons list:New England Pros: Close to home base (drive within 2 hours max) and comfort with the region (know the cities/towns)Good opportunity for price appreciation (not that I am looking for some huge increases)As a result of price appreciation, I am considering taking out a HELOC to do more deals.New England Cons: High acquisition costs (purchase price/down payments/reserve requirements)Lower cap rates/slim cash flowExpensive repair costsMidwest Pros: Great cash flow/cap ratesPrice stability (prices don’t increase or drop significantly)I can scale the portfolio and really achieve my goals rather quickly (more on that later)Midwest Cons: Investing distance (I’ll need to get on a plane rather than jumping in a car and going to see the houses, whenever)Low familiarity with the region.

I know they reject about 95% of the funding requests so looks like the chances of newbie are pretty slim.

I don't  want to make my margin so slim and spend 2 months of work and risk for 3K profit. :)

Trustee sales are also tight and inventory levels for auctions are slim these days.

Adrian Jones You are responsible to put the house back to code unless the city will say that it is grandfathered, yours is a great example: a non-habitable space converted into a habitable space that has no permit means that you are responsible to convert that back or get the permit for it, meaning prove to the city bldg and safety that the space is safe to live in, remember that everything is tied to a code, there is slim to none chance of that having approved but the possibility of approval is there.

You really need to add capex and vacancy rate into the equation, unless nothing ever goes wrong with the property and never has a vacancy (chances of that are slim to none).

Realisticially, the chance of recovering any funds is slim to none.We turn our paperwork over to a collections agency. 

I figured that chances are slim that something in that price range would work, but I always try to keep an eye out just to keep my options open.

the chances that 99% of landlords ever end up in an actual trial is so slim to none.. its like a water landing it can happen but the chances are remote.. that's why umbrella insurance is so cheap.

Brick is more solid structurally than stucco (by a slim margin), but either will do fine if in good condition.