Conducting market analysis

[Bridgette Smith]

Hello! I am in the very early stages of my REI journey (literally 2 months in). I'm consuming TONS of information but think I have narrowed down my initial strategies to produce both short term (wholesaling) and long term (rental properties) outcomes. In regards to the latter, I am curious on the process of conducting a market analysis for rental properties. This of course being separate from analyzing a property to identify if it is a good deal. Before this, how do you even identify areas to look in? Especially when you are operating in a densely populated (and probably saturated) market like the DFW area? Is there a target range for cash flow? What about neighborhood characteristics? What are some other criteria that would be apart of this analysis?