It’s a fairly sophisticated operation, with an unusually long time lag between first identifying the unclaimed funds, tracking the beneficiaries, obtaining a contract from said beneficiaries, gathering all the documents needed for “proof”, dealing with numerous government agencies, and finally hopefully having your client receive the funds and you getting paid.

I would focus on established markets that are still showing growth and have more than just one draw.Taking my main market of Tampa Metro as an example - There is more than just beaches, you also have MLB/NHL/NFL + Spring break and MLB Spring training, aquariums, golf, casino, new downtown development, and a lot of business travel.You want to avoid markets with just one draw, as if something happens to that draw, you will be hurting for who knows how long.

I would add that there may be (4) also, failure of investment strategy.some of these can be interlocked, for example if a investment fails due to its high risk nature, and the investment sponsor did not inform the investors of the risk, then some aspect of (5) would exist; if not fraud certainly misrepresentation.another example would be if the investment sponsor relates a history of experience, knowledge and success to entice you to invest, but for a large part his experience, knowledge and success are in reality not what he has stated, then we again arrive at (5) misrepresentation.Please understand that its easy and common for even very sophisticated investors to make bad investment, and even very sophisticated investors to get fooled and seduced by con artists.also please understand that with only a limited number of exceptions, the real estate guru industry is full of gurus who are not investment experts, they are in fact more likely to be marketing/sales experts, or front men for these marketing/sales organizations.  

Harrah’s Cherokee casino is just up the road and Great Smoky Mountain Railroad is a draw.

There are obviously a lot more factors that go into it - real estate is always going to be a mix of the tangible property/market itself with a mix with the investor/operator including experience, risk appetite, financial situation etc.I would say however if you are just getting started in real estate - LTRs are probably (in a vacuum) the better bet as STRs are certainly more sophisticated and challenging from an investor perspective

It’s located near a big refinery and 30 mins away from casinos in lake Charles.

You can find more sophisticated calculators or spreadsheets but this one is great.

My son recently talked to me about being a sponsor on a sophisticated value add.  

Speaking broadly, I think the best investment strategy involves finding properties that aren't fully utilizing their income potential.At a more sophisticated level, that might mean buying a fourplex of large two-bedrooms, making relocation agreements with the tenants, remodeling the units into three-bedrooms, and then renting them out at market rents.

And sometimes banks are the ones who mislead such a home buyer, by issuing pre-approvals and approvals to sign a contract, but then back out when more sophisticated underwriters spot an issue (in buyer's income, credit score, DTI, property value and etc.) that loan officers who gave preliminary approvals didn't want to see.