Alternatively, a reason to go the distance and build it out:A. 

I recommend reading “Long-Distance Real Estate Investing: How to Buy, Rehab, and Manage Out-of-State Rental Properties” - I found it to be very helpful when I got started investing 2.5 years ago.

IU East is more for commuters, and Earlham is a smaller liberal arts school.

So with this basement conversion my home will become a 2 unit dwelling (being that I'm walking distance to the Brookland metro and CUA Catholic University of America) it should rent for $1300 - $1500 easy.  

Use all those in addition to location, distance to activities etc to come up with your plan.Frankly, your cash flow analyzer should work just fine if it works for your own personal deals.

If you haven't already, read "Long-Distance Real Estate Investing" by David Greene before taking any action investing out of state. 

Uses that cater to commuters would thrive.

Considerations we've heard/read about are: distance to primary residence, location of the property in comparison to the primary residence (ie, if we live by the beach and we buy a property by the beach, it's likely not our vacation or second home, whereas living inland and buying in downtown or by the beach could be a more likely second or vacation home), and minimum timeframes for owner occupancy (like 14 nights if we eventually choose to do STRs there).We live inland and if this does allow us to buy at a higher price point, we're open to looking in more tourist-y areas of the city.

I recommend reading “Long-Distance Real Estate Investing: How to Buy, Rehab, and Manage Out-of-State Rental Properties” - I found it to be very helpful when I got started investing 2.5 years ago.

I’d prefer to invest locally in my own market just due to the fact that I’d be starting out and I think it’s important to stay close to any property before branching out and investing long distance.