Do not get sucked in to this society and get everything they require. 

Don't buy in the roughest neighborhood in the urban core.

This is an urban legend. 

Development trends in an area always start with road development i.e expanding lanes or putting in new roads, then comes the housing, then comes shopping centers then comes medical facilities...urban sprawl.

It's like a blackhole - once it's starts it's nearly impossible for these places to reverse the trends - a few places in KS have gotten better - Dodge City, Garden City, Hays - they hang on and are relatively "progressive" (I use that term loosely) compared to their other rural neighboring cities) and have found a way to survive and somewhat thrive in today's society.  

REI meetings can help you learn a lot about your market as well and even city planning and urban development meetings may give insight to where development is being approved in the city to give you an idea of what neighborhoods may be seeing some gentrification in the future and would thus be a potentially good area to buy.

I like how you invest in urban areas, you seem to conduct yourself very professional.

Some cities have robust traits within the manufacturing sector, urban areas in Florida such as Orlando have a lifeline of steady tourism, and cities such as Seattle have experienced a boom in tech jobs.

@Ray HarrellDo you work with urban properties?

No one is going to be contacting the lender to buy the note...that's an urban legend.