Consider starting small with house hacking a duplex or triplex, and use tools like the BiggerPockets Rental Property Calculator to analyze deals.Good luck!

My job is to thoroughly vet the operator, analyze the market and analyze the deal - then I send the wire and my job is done. 

Analyze Rental Income PotentialRun the numbers for your specific property.

They can also help you analyze the highest and best use for the property and location.

It's an estimated cash on cash return given current rental rates subtract expenses assuming 7% interest rate, 10% management fee, 5% repairs, 5% capex and other expenses like mortgage, insurance, tax. it's a estimate to tell you what properties to analyze vs ignoreyou can see the are pockets of negative returns as well as pockets of positive return. this is to supplement the data @Devin Conley provided

BP has various tools to help you analyze your deals (rentals, flips, wholesale, etc). : https://www.biggerpockets.com/investment-calculators7.

Not only for the census ending in 2020 but also the projected population from 2020 to 2025.I agree that population increase is important and should be factored in when analyzing a property. 

Then start analyzing deals so you get comfortable with that process.

I use bigger pockets to analyze my flip deals.

Hello everyone, I am analyzing the Indio, CA market as a short term rental investment and we'd love to speak to someone who is self managing their own vacation rental.