In my mind, it's a place with older housing stock and a few blighted properties, but in an area I would probably not care to be a landlord.

They will pay high prices to meet needs that are not income producing - they are shopping for a different product that is provided from the same stock that our income properties come from.2. having deep enough knowledge of the neighborhoods to allow us to recognize a good deal takes a lot of time.

(Only 4.5% of housing stock can be NOO STRs.)

There are many articles comparing real estate to the stock market, but they never take into account all the advantages and methods of earning one gets with real estate.I don't know where you are in your education journey, so I'll start with some basics.

So many articles show up on my feed with the "experts" predicting whats happening next..Who should we actually listen to?

My prediction for what people will say 10 years from now:"There's no good deals out there."

I’m in the process of stocking my tool belt with all the knowledge needed to take full advantage of my assets. 

When you sell or buy a business, its usually done via an "asset sale" as opposed to a "stock sale" and the person buying the business is usually buying goodwill or intellectual property for the majority of the purchase. 

I'm not exactly excited for my funds to be tied up for a year while the house is being built but I could borrow against myself (TSP - government employee) or sell some stock/use some of my cash ~$130k.

Rent in this market is predicted to continue to increaseOther option would be to Flip and Sell, but I speculate the market could really increase if I rent for 2-3 years before selling (including option of seller finance)thanks for the help!!