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

Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Thai influence makes for some extraordinary flavor combinations.

And as far as Scotsman Guide is concerned, once more you just had add a little extra Hinrichs flavor to your post about them by insinuating that most of what is in there is wholesale lenders for retail.Uh huh, but there are very specific sections for Residential and Commercial HMLs so there should be no confusion. 

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.

It's kind of what flavor of risk and return is an investor comfortable with. 

Yes, prepayment penalties can come in a few different flavors, and are negotiable with many types of lenders.

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.

But for local flavor, check out Jeremy Burgess and the Renegade Detroit Investor group.  

You should use the search feature and read some older posts to get a flavor of the discussion.