A vibrant, walkable neighborhood in a diverse, cultured, major metropolis.

For rentals around an active vibrant military base, filling them will not be any harder than if you were there. 

Not that it won't work, but odds are you won't get any kind of a quick turnaround or pull some unit mailing list that the wholesaler/flipping ecosystem has bypassed.  

Area must have over 1 million people with mass transit/easy commute, area must have 80% workforce penetration either working or actively looking for work, and the area must have a vibrant tech based higher educational system.The cities are:BostonDallas (sorry Austin) PhiladelphiaHere is why I think these are the markets to beat and why others are not on the top three list.Pros:Boston has Harvard, MIT, Brown, BC, and UMASS is not far away either (Best).

One very fascinating tell was a  borrower who owns a $20mm property and is delinquent on a $4 Million Interest-Only mortgage in a very vibrant, big city.

I read on here that there are some parts of it that are reviving and are quite hot markets.The suburbs are a totally different story- several of them are very vibrant economically and socially.

Consequently, they can do what you want to do but faster and cheaper.So if the flipping ecosystem with all of the cards falling in their favor can't find a plethora of great deals, are you really, really, REALLY sure that these are as good as you think they are?  

They don't think about fees, commission splits, etc. and the Million Dollar Listing ecosystem only enhances the perception of a near-infinite upside.

Just adding to the topic, I last hung out in the area back in June after Social Grounds Coffee Shop and Hyperion Brewing opened and it was already feeling pretty vibrant.

@Kevin Lefeuvre it wouldn't shock me at all if VRBOHomeAway was in the process of changing their process to eliminate the ability to contact the guest outside of their ecosystem.