Hey just thought I would chime in as I have a little bit of experience in this, have contemplated buying a home out of the country, done some research, etc. I'm also in the midwest and have rentals here.
My first piece of advice, or at least something that I took into mind was until you have at least a couple properties buy a place you would actually consider living in yourself. For example, Im in the Chicagoland area. I have a place in the city and a place in the burbs. Both are places I would live, I have lived in one. My thinking with this is on the offchance I do have a vacancy for a while I can live in the place and at least it's not a total waste.
I've actually been pretty fortunate in that every tenant I have pays on time, takes care of the home, etc. I havn't run into any of the nightmare scenarios we often hear about so I consider myself lucky. That said I also run credit checks, check with employer, try to rent to families, etc so part of that is probably due to careful screening.
As far as the college town thing I think many midwestern colleges not the mega ones like U of I, have pretty low priced rentals. Dekalk or NIU is a bit more pricey because of the proximity to Chicago, though it still a small town anything less than an hour from Chicago isn't going to be dirt cheap just due to proximity. If you go to western illinosi or eastern illinois in bufu your going to find much cheaper housing. Back when I was in college you could pickup a 4 bedroom SFH for like 25k, the way rentals are structured each kid pays say $200 and has an individual lease as opposed to just saying the house is $800. Anyhow, mortage on a 25k place, if you even need one is like nothing a month, low taxe, etc. It's hard not to make money with a scenario like this. Heck if even one of the 4 kids pays the rent you cover your expenses. I know college kids trash stuff and everything else but they also have lower expectations and aren't on your ass to repair things. Heck I had cold water in one house for an entire year and never said boo about it, that said we had a chill landlord who let us have parties and do whatever as long as we didn't burn the place down where as some might drive around on a friday night looking to catch you having a party so they could hit you with a $250 per keg fine for violating your lease. He didn't bug us so we didn't bug him.
Don't get me wrong I know some schools have these luxury apartments with hot tubs and stuff but most of the housing stock at EIU which I'm very familiar with and WIU kids didn't have high expectations houses weren't anything fancy and honestly most were in disrepair.
My best place currently is in the Chicago burbs, in one of the top school districts in the state but in a bordering community which is a bit sketchier, but place was only 87K, its safe, in a good school district and will always be easy to rent. People who want to live here care about their kids being in a good district so most aren't lowlifes. Mortgae including taxes and everything is around 744, I charge $1250 and could probably get upwards of $1400 but don't want to raise rent as I have a tenant who has been there a while, pays on time and actually does a lot of work to improve the house, has put in thousands themselves.
Some other markets around here that are good off the top of my head would be Toledo Ohio you can buy houses in not that bad areas for say 15k if you got cash, maybe needing a few grand in repairs.
There was a guy on here a while back who was very knowledgeable in real estate I think his name was bikerbiker or something like that. He'd be a guy to PM as I picked his brain a few times and he knows a lot. Also he has a lot of stuff in the midwest which is where I'm most familiar.
I'm looking at buying my next place down in South Carolina as my parents moved down there, want to pickup a rental I can have them check on from time to time and I may consider reloacting down there in the next year or so, Charleston area or maybe out by the beach by Folly Beach.
My first piece of advice, or at least something that I took into mind was until you have at least a couple properties buy a place you would actually consider living in yourself. For example, Im in the Chicagoland area. I have a place in the city and a place in the burbs. Both are places I would live, I have lived in one. My thinking with this is on the offchance I do have a vacancy for a while I can live in the place and at least it's not a total waste.
I've actually been pretty fortunate in that every tenant I have pays on time, takes care of the home, etc. I havn't run into any of the nightmare scenarios we often hear about so I consider myself lucky. That said I also run credit checks, check with employer, try to rent to families, etc so part of that is probably due to careful screening.
As far as the college town thing I think many midwestern colleges not the mega ones like U of I, have pretty low priced rentals. Dekalk or NIU is a bit more pricey because of the proximity to Chicago, though it still a small town anything less than an hour from Chicago isn't going to be dirt cheap just due to proximity. If you go to western illinosi or eastern illinois in bufu your going to find much cheaper housing. Back when I was in college you could pickup a 4 bedroom SFH for like 25k, the way rentals are structured each kid pays say $200 and has an individual lease as opposed to just saying the house is $800. Anyhow, mortage on a 25k place, if you even need one is like nothing a month, low taxe, etc. It's hard not to make money with a scenario like this. Heck if even one of the 4 kids pays the rent you cover your expenses. I know college kids trash stuff and everything else but they also have lower expectations and aren't on your ass to repair things. Heck I had cold water in one house for an entire year and never said boo about it, that said we had a chill landlord who let us have parties and do whatever as long as we didn't burn the place down where as some might drive around on a friday night looking to catch you having a party so they could hit you with a $250 per keg fine for violating your lease. He didn't bug us so we didn't bug him.
Don't get me wrong I know some schools have these luxury apartments with hot tubs and stuff but most of the housing stock at EIU which I'm very familiar with and WIU kids didn't have high expectations houses weren't anything fancy and honestly most were in disrepair.
My best place currently is in the Chicago burbs, in one of the top school districts in the state but in a bordering community which is a bit sketchier, but place was only 87K, its safe, in a good school district and will always be easy to rent. People who want to live here care about their kids being in a good district so most aren't lowlifes. Mortgae including taxes and everything is around 744, I charge $1250 and could probably get upwards of $1400 but don't want to raise rent as I have a tenant who has been there a while, pays on time and actually does a lot of work to improve the house, has put in thousands themselves.
Some other markets around here that are good off the top of my head would be Toledo Ohio you can buy houses in not that bad areas for say 15k if you got cash, maybe needing a few grand in repairs.
There was a guy on here a while back who was very knowledgeable in real estate I think his name was bikerbiker or something like that. He'd be a guy to PM as I picked his brain a few times and he knows a lot. Also he has a lot of stuff in the midwest which is where I'm most familiar.
I'm looking at buying my next place down in South Carolina as my parents moved down there, want to pickup a rental I can have them check on from time to time and I may consider reloacting down there in the next year or so, Charleston area or maybe out by the beach by Folly Beach.