After realizing the market is essentially gambling, I started looking to real estate as I love the idea of having my money in something physical and real. 

@Matt Schelberg  just functional, physical and social obsolences at work in the market place.. its so foreign to us out here..

Physically only currently in Phoenix, Just starting in Las Vegas and soon Houston.  

Look at tax rolls for ownership addresses that don't match the physical address you're looking at.  

In my county, I have to physically go to the Assessor's office to get it because the records aren't available online. 

You may have been able to squeeze out a higher return relative to a non VR, but it's still an active business model that is separate from the physical property and should not be used to determine the value of the property.

Investing in physical real estate requires a large time commitment, as well as stores of revenue for employing building maintenance professionals and making required repairs or installations as needed.

You are in a great place for REI, both physically and virtually!

I live in a very rural area north of Asheville, NC which does not have much going on as far as real estate movement so I’m looking at other areas.Asheville is hot right now and has set record sales/prices for 2015.This has put the little inventory that is available out of my price range.Asheville would be my long term goal.According to Zillow (which I’m not sure how accurate it is) market health index for Asheville is 9.4/10.Other areas I’m considering are Greenville, SC (market health index 7.8/10 ) and Johnson City, TN (index of 5.9/10), both with more inventory in my price range.Asheville is 35 minutes from my house, Greenville 2 hours, and Johnson City 1 hour.I have made contact with a realtor in the Greenville area and that area really looks like it has potential.I am a Nurse and my wife is a Physical Therapist so we have W2 income and would not need to live off flipping.I also have 3 days off a week to manage rehabs, plus downtime at work for research/studying markets.

They build a casino in Erie a few years back.