I am a owner of 4 rental properties in West Michigan and am going to offer on a multi-family home in Heritage Hill Historic District, in Grand Rapids, MI.  

You could buy a dated house in an area you believe will be appreciating rapidly.

San Antonio is about 10 years behind cities like Austin, Dallas, Houston, so they are just now at the beginning of what I predict will be rapid growth, development, revitalization, $$$$ to be gained.

They typically are sold in increments of a million dollars.

It's a risk vs. reward balance for them, I'd guess.It'll be very interesting to see how the sponsor and deal quality shakes out in this rapidly growing space.  

Yep, Meridian and Kuna are both growing rapidly...and at some point they will converge. 

It's easiest to just register where you are/are doing business from the start and worry about incremental tax advantages later on when you can afford an attorney/CPA to work out the nuances.

I have a friend in Rapid City, SD, who is looking for a decent 3 bdr house to rent.

In the bubble, we had a very hot market, although artificial, and any monkey could throw a dart at the board, say, Ill take that one, and sell 3 months later for a $50k profit without doing anything. those times are gone and I doubt they will come back in our lifetimes.In a standard hot market, prices do not increase that rapidly so flippers need to find a way to buy at a discount, then sell at the premium price after rehab.In a stagnant market, which we had from end of last year to approx February of this year, it was more difficult to find a deal worth doing and if you did have one, harder to find a buyer too, although, when you did, still a profitable position so I would summarize that a good flipper can make money in any market so long as he/she has the connections and abilities to get the deals and get them sold.

I am new so I am still absorbing info at a rapid rate.