Of course, this can be a good thing if you use this volatility as your friend as I did, but I'd bet that buy and hold in Lancaster today the volatility will not be your friend in the short to mid term, and doubt very much that cash flow would save you from such volatility, since it can be equally volatile as most tenants up there are 1 missed paycheck away from missing rent.Now, as to profitability, I have made good money in both Lancaster and Glendale ... the rent to purchase price is much lower in Glendale than Lancaster, and yet the Glendale home has been much more profitable and infinitely fewer management headaches for me than the Lancaster property.

It has sold several times because no one else wants the headache of dealing with terrible tenants.

More taxes, no chance to sell tax-free, but, less headaches.

because he doesn't want the headaches that come with worse areas and lower quality tenants.

Her two friends have been nothing but a headache for me.

I don't want to manage 20 or 30 properties leveraged just to be making over 100k a year, this is suppose to be semi-passive and I intend on keeping my headaches to a minimum, plus 60k a year goes a long way in the midwest.

Like you stated; you don't want head ache long term tenants.

You will have more risk and more headaches from tenants not paying or trashing the place if it's in a sketchy or low income area.

Would it make it pretty easy to be an absentee owner or would it be more headache than it's worth?  

We're seeing the effects on the failing infrastructure of Nashville, causing all sorts of traffic headaches.