I bet if you did some marketing in your area you could find bargains pretty close to you.

The human psyche and habits are really stressed as part of successful long term investing.

For the most part, door knocking, cold calling, email marketing, ppc, and direct mail are your best bets for producing those leads.With that said, I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss deals on the MLS either.

Sounds like your territory is more in the burbs, and commuting here can be a PITA, so your best bet is to come here and get the lay of the land and then decide on where you want to live.  

Interesting article about Google dealing with housing for employees. I work for a large company that decided to buy a hotel in our corporate town for people coming in for training. After a few years realized a lot ch...

I think the best bet would be to speak to your attorney about the best way to proceed.

I think for a few hundred dollars your best bet might be to get a roof rack in case you need to haul stuff or a small trailer and buy a hitch for the car. 

Sorry to be a wet blanket, but if there are drug dealers there, it's a good bet that they're gang affiliates.That's a conflict that's most likely not worth having - especially considering the risk to reward ratio.No deal is worth getting killed over.

If you really believe they will purchase the property.....a long shot at best I'm betting, then have a real estate attorney draw up a lease/purchase agreement stipulating things in writing up front.

In college I was well served by my habit of sitting down with any new employer over lunch for a short meeting about what I expected of them, what they expected of me, and what we expected of ourselves.