Same goes with any segment of REI that you are interested in.

@Josephine Wilson I admittedly have not read all of the pages of this post but what I did read had not mentioned an important segment and driver to answer your question of who is buying at these levels: fund investors. 

Love the idea of house hacking in an A neighborhood, a good way to build that segment of your portfolio!

It has a segment of the population that has strong ties in the state, it also has a  strong student rental market in some areas.

I have great contacts in the multi family insurance segment but I haven’t done a SFR deal in Birmingham of this type.

It's hard to stand out.There are some owner-occupied segments with people who share motivating factors for selling their home.Seniors with Long-time Ownership: often ready to downsize or transition to assistance.Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores (FSS): Struggling financially and likely ready to cash in on their asset.Both these categories have additional advantages in that they probably don’t haven’t been updated and may have deferred maintenance.

I was able to watch segments from last year’s MEREDA conference and they were good in terms of giving a detailed idea about the different market trends.

Now without GSA financing the only players left will be cash buyers in very specific VR friendly locations OR a very small segment using non GSA financing to buy small to large multifamily and doing VR in that small space. 

Like Nathan said, do something with the one who you can segment the jobs with the most and make it very transparent how it will work.

I'd suggest you join in on some of the local REIA meetings in Akron to get to know some folks that are in that segment.