Research shows that the more experienced home buyers have a longer and generally more specific list of demands than first-time home buyers.If our buyer does not have a home tour checklist, I give them a version that I have used for years (I did not create it, another investor shared it with me and I have used it). 

One thing I think I would do is either hire a professional market research company and/or get a local high school or college marketing class to do market research and surveys to see if there is interest and demand. 

That does help my sanity a bit haha and more research will be done on the next one.

I've got 7 months before the lease is up, so no is the time to research and think it through

Researching... any recent experiences with Dominion?   

I will say that some of the listing prices and projected rents seem high when comparing against my own research.

Good luck- shoot me an IM if you'd like more info on my process..a little bit of background research and some phone calls can make your sq' price swing back a lot. 

Since your post is a bit older, I stumbled upon it while researching strategies for navigating 1031 exchanges in this tricky high-interest-rate market.

Next is getting to the work of researching that market to confirm viability, building the TEAM, the How-To for strategy. 

Hi Shawn-Congratulations on starting out on your real estate investing career.You have a question about whether it is good to have your real estate license or not as an investor and you are leaning toward multifamily investing.I personally think having your real estate license is helpful as an investor.Having your real estate license allows you to work with other investors to help them build their portfolios which helps expand your network while being productive, you can research market value more effectively, find out about deals before they are listed, and of course it allows you to collect the commission on purchasing any listed property.To Your Success!