@Jonathan Bo Yes, you can find properties that cash flow, my rule of thumb is 30% down for multi unit properties.Most of these will require some type of sweat equity.Please be aware of rent controlled areas, mostly in LA.

We had a live in the "storage locker space of 3rd floor" guy that when he heard someone coming would go up to the flat roof thru the roof access in the locker space,, some other tenants from across the pool were calling office wondering why someone was up there.. any way..This is what happens when controlled entry doors are blocked open or pennies stuck in the locks.. anyone and everyone has access..You did good job getting him out and we did the same,, besides adding locks to roof hatches and putting notices out about making sure entry doors are controlled and stranger alerts.. 

They tend to have a justice system that is back-logged so it's very time-consuming and expensive to prove your innocence and regain control of your investment.These laws will eventually creep into the red states because every government tends to degrade over time and lose sight of things.Laws I've seen (even prior to COVID):1.

I own in rent control in a prime area for STR.

If you can't keep control of your personal finances, you are highly unlikely to succeed in real estate investing.

There's no harm in saying, "Hey I'm going to Amazon some of the specific things I want put into the home, let's set up a system for package retrieval, quality control, and installation." 

If you can't keep control of your personal finances, you are highly unlikely to succeed in real estate investing.

of course, Atlanta is a balanced market so I try to get more flips and buy-hold since Atlanta market is controlled by Ebuyer I can do buy-and-hold for longer time. 

In case of buying in Austin i will still be using property management company since i work full-time, but at least i have better grasp of the market, and of course finding properties, as well as controlling management company would be so much easier locally.Thanks in advance for any thoughts on these alternatives! 

You have a higher chance of finding a true, heavy value add with the smaller mom and pop deals.Every market, there are about 5 brokers that control 80% of the deals.