I began out of state investing in Rochester NY in 2004 and soon discovered that even carefully crafted cash flow projections seldom capture the full impact of the repairs/maintenance you will incur, especially in the upper Midwest (Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Erie) where the winters can be absolutely brutal. 

Then I discovered BiggerPockets.

Here is an example, the recent fraud discovered in China regarding fake gold.

I went home a researched it a bit more and discovered that mold can run rampant behind the product, and destroy your house. 

One issue, the cabinet doors have a 1/4" inset which I'm discovering isn't the norm today. 

The initial plumbing repair took up enough of our startup money that we were only able to repair the side we wanted to rent out, and basically have done nothing to our side (our side is NOT rent ready...it still has lots of wall and floor damage from the initial foundation repair).Fast forward to today - I’ve discovered they only repaired HALF of the foundation.

There have been many issues that the new tenant has discovered that made me lose confidence in the contractor, but the latest one scares me because of liability.3 weeks ago they told me that the stairs have nails sticking out of them and that they can't hammer them back in.

I have set a goal to have purchased a property (I am looking at either single family homes or a possible duplex/triplex, depending on what I discover as I continue to study to the area) or at least be actively looking at deals before the year is up. 

Institutional\Wall Street companies are also driving up SFH, too, by reducing supply and selling them over and over to each other for a profit. 

The buyer pool - consisting of debt addicted institutions and high net worth individuals - will chase deals harder than ever before.