You can protect yourself by running tenant screening as well as ask references from last landlord.

By doing so you will get much better returns on your money compared to what you been getting over the last few years and you will also minimize your risk since your investment will be secured by real estate.

"CrowdStreet" was one that I ran across last night, and I've seen others. 

I have earned over 200K for the last 4 years as a roofing salesman.  

Last, if you are also a SD investor looking at or currently investing in the KC market, please connect!  

The next step would be to work with the Realtor and determine the hot markets, in your County, with the greatest number of sales over the last 90 to 120 days.

I have been investing in Newark and Irvington for the last 5 years .

Lastly, with foreclosure there may be additional debts on the property.

Write it up as a personal letter.When you do all that, then contact a local RE Agent to give you a list of all the houses in that neighborhood that have sold in the last 5 years with all cash.

In the last 13 months I received my license, bought 16 rent houses, flipped two houses with 500+ sq ft additions, and scraped three 1000 sq ft houses and build new 2600 sq ft homes.