i am unfamiliar with your local market but up in the North East, New England in particular, my brokerage hosts a lot of REI meet ups every month.

Population and economic growth, strong tourism, proximity to other New England cities.

The problem many of us run into is being in New England, many of the markets are high cost, high appreciation markets that we either can't get pre qualified for, or even after moving out will struggle to cash flow.Another big constraint is that many of us have W-2 jobs in engineering that require some days in the office, and these types of higher paying jobs are primarily in major cities (most of us are in the Boston area).Lastly, a lot of us have significant others that may be less interested in living somewhere "random" because it makes sense as an investment.

If you're looking to stay in New England, New Hampshire has, by far, the most landlord friendly tenant laws.

For the past 4 years I've been focused full-time on the niche of pre-existing non-conforming land parcels and/or land that is considered undevelopable.Basically, I focus on rehabbing lots instead of rehabbing houses and I have virtually no competition up here in the New England Area.Is anyone else here doing this?  

There are MANY landlords with properties on the west coast and in the New England states, that deal with negative cashflow - but, depend on appreciation to make their rentals "profitable".

In terms of feedback from our team, we’re leaning towards buttoning down the hatches, keeping rent increases low, and focusing on maximizing occupancy in our New England markets.

Hey Matthew,A lot has changed since you posted this but I also lived in New England and now live in St Pete.

@Jordan Ray This is spot on and something we run into constantly in the New England markets, where prices have climbed significantly over the past five years.

It will take the prior owner about 1 to 2 years to come to the realization, there really isn't a market, but they have to go back to the US/England/Canada.