Over the past couple of years I've been thinking a lot about how much of my tech salary has disappeared into the ether and decided I need to make my money work for me. 

The SF IRR can only be beaten by Venture Capitalist private investment in some tech sector (prior 2021).

I work in tech so I'm naturally gravitating towards areas that have a lot of tech workers (lots of foreign workers renting).Any ideas? 

Columbus has become a major tech hub in the midwest with large companies like Intel investing $20 billion, Amazon investing $3.5 billion, Google building 2 new data centers: one in downtown Columbus and the other in right outside of U.S. 33 in Lancaster.

BRRRR didn't work for me in Indiana - ARV not high enough, renovation costs over budget and I'm at a huge disadvantage being 2000 miles away.The people I've seen do this in recent years are high earning tech workers in CA making $200,000+ for a single person or $400,000+ married couple and they were able to scale pretty quickly from 2015 to the present and leave their W2 jobs. 

Take a look at Reno, it's is a solid area for rentals because of the limited new construction, tech and manufacturing jobs moving to the area (Tesla, Apple, Switch etc.) along with the lithium loop of mining and recycling to manufacturing batteries and vehicles.  

Ongoing population growth, a thriving tech scene and strong economic factors point towards potential value increases down the line.

Some of the upgrades you mentioned (specifically the smart tech stuff) only help for new home buyers (window shoppers).

Having a property management team with internal maintenance techs on-staff, preferred contractors/vendors(vetted with long-term 10+ yr relationships), and processors in place- is where you'll find peace of mind. 

Your deal is probably not what most people are looking for at these events, but you never know and some people looking to diversify away from tech and healthcare type stuff.