In the instance the location is soft you will have to be aware up front that purchasing a house for creative real estate investing will require some knowledge. You will not want to be forced to restrict yourself to purchasing a home that you will have to live in. For instance, that means you buy a home and dwell in it until you flip it. In such an area you will really need to get ahead on other investors. You will not be able to sell it any higher than what the market brings. This is why you need to tie it up at a substantial discount to retain a fair profit if you are planning to do this the traditional way.
In this case buyers will begin by doing research on listings in the current areas. With the local real estate areas and the amount of motivated sellers, investors who are creative real estate investing are doing very well. No matter what you choose to do, when all is said and done, you have to weigh the money you made against the level of risk that came into play getting the investment successfully closed. This is why creative avenues which include wholesaling real estate are much better
Of course be sure to educate yourself about wholesaling properties and/or seek an experienced colleague before you decide on any new real estate business and finance pursuits.