The property I bought was a referral from a past client and a deal I could not pass up.

It's been a good source for me in the past. 

Not Akron, but I invest about 25 mins away in Canton.

We have rented it out the past 3 years.

In my opinion, you can make as much money buying cheap houses as you can buying expensive homes.Affordability is an issue for a lot of Americans so I will argue cheaper cities performed better over the past 10 years than more expensive markets / houses.San Francisco, CA, Seattle, WA and New York, NY are considered expensive markets.If I look at Zillow's price estimate for homes comparing 2016 and 2024San Francisco - Average Price of home was $1,145,000 and now its 1,262,000(Increase of 10%)Seattle - Average Price of home was $561,000 and now its $848,000(51%)New York - Average price was $561,000 and now its $766,000(37%)Memphis, TN, Indianapolis, IN and Clevlenad, OH are considered cheaper markets.Zillow is showing more appreciation in these markets over the same time periodMemphis - Average price was $73,000 and now its $149,000(104%)Indianapolis - Average price was $107,000 and now its $225,000(110%)Cleveland - Average price was $54,000 and now its $109,000(101%)Population increases and job growth are two indicators that result in appreciation.Two of the cheaper markets listed above(Memphis and Cleveland) are not increasing in population.

First I scour past posts to see if my problem has already been encountered (usually, yes) or my question has been answered (again, usually yes).

I have seen several of these deals fall out with them in the past few weeks.

The next neighborhood over (literally across the street) is pretty nice, but falls in a different township that has higher property tax, and then the next neighborhood (about a 4 min drive and 15 minute walk) is much lower end, and while fine class C-ish area, you can't push rents much, and the village has its own income tax, so you will pay 2% of your net to the village...But back to first comment: take 4-5 days and travel to each.  

I was listed with four different realtors over the past several years, but I don't think they were  putting too much effort in selling the lot.                                     

@Nedim Tokman 90% of people that buy courses - never do any investing to use them:(I have paid for courses in the past, with the understanding that I was paying to get the info faster than I could research it myself.