You have the growing and vibrant parts, with jobs and people wanting to live there and you have shrinking neighborhoods, with no jobs and people looking at how they can move out.

If keeping it as a rental, and are borrowing funds, frequent exchanges of currency may shrink profit margins and maybe even take them right out.

I'm doing about 2-3m worth of deals each year, and I maybe pull 1-2 agent based comps a year to double check a property that just does not feel right because a neighborhood is a black box for us.The world is changing, real estate agent business is a shrinking now of days with technology, like it or not.. 

Hey! everyone, Look to invest in a Beach Condo, a heads up prices are rising due to low inventory.  Some Condominium has not had the price increase yet, others you can see prices rising from 70K to 100+K.  Here is Wh...

According to the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors (MIBOR), existing-home sales in central Indiana increased 5.4% in June year-over-year, as inventory continued to shrink & average sale prices continued to riseIn Marion County (a proxy for the city of Indianapolis), closed sales rose 3.5% in June from the same month in 2015, from 1,432 to 1,482.  

However, 30 miles south of me is borderline war zone, shrinking demographics, high crime areas, ROI is 20% but I wouldn't invest there.So, would I invest in a property with 8% ROI?

If you aren't growing you are shrinking.

I appreciate the information, because it will help me evaluate my strategies to see if they align with the current market conditions.I've also seen some interesting old homes in some of the small towns throughout the region, but all small towns nationwide seem to be shrinking in size while larger cities grow so I'm not sure how that looks for long term growth.

When the economy tanks, vacations are often one of the first things people eliminate from their budgets, and the pool of eligible buyers for vacation properties usually shrinks substantially--which drives down the property's value (whereas a good SF LTR may lose relatively little or no value, and may lose little or no rent income in an economic downturn)....given the current state of the economy (recession almost a certainty, higher rates, and high inflation), a vacation property could be a very risky move right now--particularly for a new investor.In a nutshell, all things being equal, the vacation property would be a more challenging, riskier, more time consuming property.

Actually, this even provides a free soaking of our side yard should grass ever decide to grow there, and even help keep the clay soil from shrinking and causing further stress on the foundation.So when they saw the water in the bottom of these open holes, they decide that there is either a drainage problem (DUH!)