Honestly — is buy-and-hold in a market like Youngstown/Mahoning Valley worth the time

Looking for honest opinions, not just success stories especially from people investing in secondary Rust Belt markets.   My situation: I’m in my mid-20s, building a small portfolio in the Youngstown, OH / Mahoning Valley area under my own LLC. I still work a W2 for income stability and lending eligibility. My approach has been deliberately conservative: low leverage, slow growth, cash-flow-focused, targeting something like 30 units by 30 as a soft goal rather than a hard deadline. I’ve spent the last several months deep in underwriting — analyzing a quadplex, working through renovation loan structures (HomeStyle, FHA 203k), modeling stabilized cash flow on a 3-property portfolio, and pursuing an off-market distressed property. So I’m not asking this as someone who hasn’t done the work.   The question I keep circling: When I actually run the numbers, buy-and-hold cash flow in my market — $150-400/month per door after debt service, taxes, insurance, and reserves — doesn’t look like a path to “successful.” It looks like a solid, slow wealth-building tool: principal paydown, modest appreciation, tax benefits, optionality down the road. Valuable, but not transformative on any timeline I can see without dramatically more leverage or scale than I’m comfortable with.   So I’m trying to get a real read from people who’ve been doing this longer: 1. Has buy-and-hold in a market like mine (cash-flow-over-appreciation, lower price points, slower rent growth) ever actually been your primary wealth engine — or is it always secondary to something else (a business, syndications, development, a W2/1099 income spike)? 2. For people investing in similar Rust Belt / secondary markets — did you eventually have to increase leverage, scale up to bigger multifamily, or leave the market to hit real wealth-building numbers? Or did slow-and-steady genuinely compound the way it’s supposed to? 3. Is “30 by 30” or similar aggressive unit-count goals realistic on a low-leverage, self-funded path — or does that math only work if you’re willing to take on more risk than I have been?   I’m not looking to be talked out of real estate I think it has a real role in my plan. I’m trying to figure out if I’m using it for the wrong job. Appreciate any honest pushback, especially from people further down this road than I am.