Ron Clarke,There seems to be a big influx of new investors coming out of the wood work in the Mid - Southern Virginia region.

We are in our mid/late 20's.

I've never made a late payment, so my credit is pretty damn good (mid 700s) but I'm working on building more history because I'm sure home loans are much harder to get than a car loan.When I was reading in the blog, I read that one way young people can jump start is by having their first flip be a "live-in flip".

Thank you Bill Gulley, To clarify, long term hold would be 7-10 years (more of a mid-term hold I suppose).

I'm sure they can still be found in parts of the mid west, too.

But my local buy-and-hold buyers have totally different needs than out of area buy-and-hold buyers, which are totally different from the local rehabbers, which are totally different from the funds buying mid-range rental props.

Returns are very favorable in states like Texas and the mid-west.

For all of you who live in high dollar markets and want to invest in the mid-south...

You don't want anything less than 0.7%.California coastal markets just don't compare to other markets like Houston, the mid-west, some parts of Florida, and a few others.

However, this is also market specific since you can buy nice duplexes in the mid-west for about $70,000 whereas you can't even buy a single family for that much in other popular investment markets.CASH-FLOW: As a general rule of thumb, multi-units, like duplexes and fourplexes, will generate more cash-flow and higher rates of return compared to single-families -- all else being equal.TENANTS: As a very general rule of thumb, you may have slightly more transient tenants in multi-unit properties versus more stable (longer term) tenants in single-family homes.