evaluating neighborhood in urban areas

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• We are a foreign service couple who is looking to return to DC for a few years, probably from 2018-2020. We are looking to purchase a home, live there, and then rent it out. DC and Northern Virginia are really expensive, and we would need a place with at least 3-4 bedrooms for our huge family. Luckily, my wife is successful and we probably can afford a place that is 800k-1.3m, for which we can put down what downpayment makes sense (and hopefully leaves us a mortgage that the rent would cover). Here are my questions
• Is there any objective neutral party I can hire to help my identify neighborhoods that are the best invest with appreciation potential in DC and Northern Virginia? I don’t trust realtors for objective advice, although I love them.
• What should I do to help figure out what neighborhoods hold potential? I just find advice like “research on the internet” but can’t find anything more specific.
• Are there reports or analyses I can buy?

Thank you so much!