It doesn't need to have granite countertops (however, that's also a segment of the student population you can go after), but it needs to be clean and solid, with no holes in walls, doors that don't work, etc.

Job loss is a really rare one to be honest, this is such a tiny % segment of things, it's like foreclosure, but even less.

There are a bunch of things to look at (DOM going up or down, cash sales vs financed, types of financing, closed sales going up or down, new inventory going up or down, average & median sales prices trending up or down, etc. . . ) and you'll want t o look at these for each market segment you are interested in. 

That's not for everyone, some love dealing with luxury segment and all the diva's, all the more to them, or into retail 1st time buyers, or water front, or or or.

A good tenant is someone who:Has stable employment in a market segment that is very likely to be stable or improve over timePays all the rent on scheduleTakes care of the propertyDoes not cause problems with neighborsDoes not engage in illegal activities while on the propertyStays for many yearsGood tenants are the exception, not the norm.

I am from Spain and have recently started to enter the RE market, so far partnering with some APIs in the luxury segment.

Each month I produce numbers for our cashflow, and segment out our expense categories as well. 

https://www.har.com/content/de...Houston Real Estate Highlights in September, 2022:-Single-family home sales fell 17.0 percent year-over-year, the sixth consecutive decline of 2022 as the market continues toward a more normalized, pre-pandemic pace;-Despite the overall sales volume decline, the high end of the market flourished with the $500,000 to $1M housing segment establishing itself as the top-performing segment in September, up 12.6 percent year-over-year;-Days on Market (DOM) for single-family homes grew from 29 to 37 days;-Total property sales were down 17.0 percent with 9,387 units sold;-Total dollar volume was off 8.5 percent at $3.7 billion;-The single-family average price rose 11.6 percent to $414,776; -The single-family median price increased 14.7 percent to $343,950;-Single-family home months of inventory registered a 2.7-months supply, up from 1.7 months a year earlier.

If commercial interest you, maybe look towards getting a job in that segment to learn the ins and outs.  

Short term rentals are not my market segment - but it doesn’t change the basic equation.