I feel for anyone who's making a house payment worth of student loans. Diversifying yourself can't be a bad idea for anyone in any situation, if you can find away that your investment (or liability) could make money for you, more power to you. Works for a great situation of you not "needing" income to pay the rent, as long as you keep your properties full. The way things are right now, i've seen several full apartment buildings being sold off in St. Louis County (my old neighborhood that the airport put a runway through). I'd assume the rent is dirt cheap (close to airplanes) and so is the property, which would lend me to believe it'd be very easy to rent it till St. Louis city buys it for noise abatement, infact, best bet would be buy it, and start writing the city commisioner the day off, trying to get him to rehab the place w/ new noise proof windows, etc, let that drive up the value of the unit, and make them pay you the pretty penny when they buy it back a few years down the line.