@Andrew WorkmanYou are willing to leave Austin for College Station ?  

We buy a home at every duty station that we turn into a rental.

Right now I'm stationed in the middle east which affords me a large amount of income I can use for investing (but I'm quite far away from the actual deals).  

So get sales info via agents etc and find the hottest selling zip codes (highest sales #'s), examine those areas and buy there.Schools make a big differencePolice and fire numbers/new stations/availability/visibility make a big difference---- Or when buying in a small town just make sure the smaller town wont dry up anytime soon and that demand out strips supply.Not sure there is a sure fire way to tell that in my smaller town - really just takes boots on the ground at some point.Jeff

Are you from where you are stationed?  

My goal is to buy a property in the Bryan/College Station area, live in one room, and rent out the others.  

Maybe build a fire station next to your multi?

But yes City data will be good, also heading to the local police station to get more information of each area and major employers and shopping and entrainment areas as well. 

I personally lived near 17th & Chanslor, a few blocks south of the Richmond BART station, with my blonde girlfriend, for just over a year, and neither of us ever had any issues.

Since they can make ethanol out of grass, I don't understand why they can't sell the corn ears as feed and use the corn stalks to make ethanol.If you do that, you are making your fuel out of what is pretty much waste product (not totally waste because the corn stalks can be used as silage)My mechanic has given me a list of gas stations to avoid because they cut their gasoline with ethanol.