See below:  the blue thing is the water filter (yeah - bad place for it) and the black thing on the ground to the right is the water meter (per water district maintenance guy that was at the house to turn the water on from the street). 

So it was a little more blue collar, properties were generally a lot less expensive, and there were  a lot of older homes that I am sure would be prime candidates for fix and flip or buy and hold.I no longer live in the area, and my wife and I personally only invest in properties near where we live (Dallas) but if I was still in the Chicago metro area, NW Indiana is a place I would look at as a real estate investor

New construction (less than 8-10 years old) would be called A class but if it brand new from 2016 and sits in the prime location of an upscale neighborhood they will call it a AA class asset (yeah, there is such a class as AA)Late 90s or Early 2000s to 2007-ish will be called B class IF the area is good and the demographics are  professionals, young families, tenants with high income and the property is very well maintained.C class buildings are usually 60s-90s built and are usually located at lower economic area with blue collar tenants.

Or are you talking about the inline shut off in the picture with the blue round handle?

@Joel Owens  thanks Joel.... acutal's Vs blue sky proforma.. is always wise.

It is a very Blue collar area and feel like there is also a lot of homeownership still going on in that area.

hey all, I have these tenants that have paid rent pretty much on time for four years who just disappeared out of the blue without any contact info.  

Here is how i would think about it if i were you; I have 10K in savings; I can: a) keep it in the bank and get 1% a year for it  - no riskb) invest it in blue chip dividend stocks that pay 4~5% in dividends - higher riskc) Use the money as down payment to buy a house to live in and rent out part of the home to generate income - you need to figure out what your return will be in this scenario.

I know these areas attract a good amount of people with blue collared jobs which is the type of tenant that I am hoping to obtain. 

The first one is your low income blue collar, these towns are great for cash flow but not much in the way of appreciation.