. - Safety ratings tend to vary by neighborhood.

Most tenants tend to be a bit focused on how much the rent is without looking at the big picture.

If you were to start there I would tend to choose an operating functioning building not something that needs significant work in repairs or upgrading tenants.The less knowledge and experience you have the higher your risk.

A once popular oilfield tends to indicate that this may be a declining market.

And others where I think its even stronger.But I tend to target the stuff in the middle and the stuff in the middle, for the most part, tends to fall in that category.Thats where I think it will be for me.

I regularly search a lot of the different auction sites, and I feel that many of them at least in this area tend to be overpriced.

the saying goes, "the leopard doesn't change his spots"....so I tend to agree with the board, and my only caveat is that you really want to know will he pay the rent...I have had a few very good long term tenants who made rent a priority but still had the errant medical bill or consumer credit problem..so I would really probe every landlord and the rental history, but recency and amount of payment  issues tends to indicate that if he won't pay others, he probably won't pay you..a vacancy may be better..with an empty unit, remember an ideal tenant could call anytime..you may have to cover the mortgage another month, but you also cover it if he doesn't pay, plus evict, and re-prep the unit....vacancy wins unanimous decision...

Some challenges renting to single students:College students come and go (Summer, etc.)College students tend to be higher maintenanceCollege students may not pay on time (can happen with anyone)College students tend to like people over, sometimes a lot of people over (wear and tear)I have rented to both and although I never did have a really "bad" experience to single students I did find the families tended to keep the place nicer.  

These houses tend to rent well, too. 

The flip-side of high priced properties is that those areas also tend to appreciate much quicker and/or retain their value and they are in places people wan to live!