<prompt> Human: I am looking to buy an old foreclosed house in the downtown of a small Mississippi town. The town sucks and is fairly crime-ridden. I am working for a respected, good attorney here and learning the ropes. Hopefully I can use this job as leverage to improve my career and start my own firm someday. I will need to rent a house and this will cost approx 750mo. If I am not at this job long, the realtor said the house would rent for 600 as-is. I know that an old house can invole a lot of maintenance costs, but I am handy and hardworking and enjoy projects. From a financial standpoint, the house could be paid off after 2 years of renting it out. I will spend 9000 on rent in one year. Even if I could never sell the house to recoup the cost, I know that I can always rent it out as passive income. Am I stupid? Am I crazy? edited to add: the house sold for 50k 3 years ago and is now foreclosed.  <response>: I would pass if the neighborhood has high crime and very poor future prospects. Being a landlord is not for the faint of heart when its in the ghetto. 