The strategies may differ.A few perks to SA are strong job and population growth and diversity of employers.  

From there you want to get a sense for what the growth drivers & employment base for the town are. 

All you have to do is just think what is the most common building material?

Sam Sheuh mentioned the parents co-signing which was also very common.

Hello bigger pockets I currently am self employed and a small business owner net income of 71k a year on paper,50k saved up and 700 credit score.

Is this a common thing?

@Julia RockwellJust look at ALL of the negative factors that led you to this place:"felt some pressure since my apartment lease was expiring"Want to be near downtown and nothing on MLS near downtownCompetition with all-cash buyersCompetition with someone looking at it at the same timeNot given "much time to think about" it"I definitely felt a lot of pressure""swayed by the location""fear of losing"All of these things are common stressors which trigger a fight or flight response in your amygdala.

There is a common misconception about what cap rates are and what their relevance is to a given asset.

However, I was also thinking of paying myself from some of the earnings as a 1099 employee simply so I would only have to pay self-employment tax on what I pay myself and not all the earnings, so filling taxes as an S-corp. 

Hey Guys, I'm about to go the self employed route and need a little help with how do setup my personal income taxso tell me if I'm going about this right....Heres just a simple example1. 5k rental income- 2k expenses - 1k (salary I pay myself) = 2k net profit - 3k (depreciation) = -1k loss for loss on rental2. 1k salary * 15.3% (med/SS tax) = 153 paid in personal taxes so far3. deduct health insurance/ 7.65% (half of med/SStax)  from personal income 4. carry the 1k business loss to my 1k salaryEssentially not paying rental income taxes and also basically just paying 7.65% of taxes on the personal salary I pay myself.obviously just an example but just wondering if Im looking at this the right way?