Your property manager is the only one that will tell you the truth, “No I won’t manage that property” and have to put their money where their month is when it comes to how much money you can collect for rent, clientele, area, etc.This is an ongoing relationship, and a good manager can refer you to other contacts.Ask for referrals.

G'Day Matt,You can only do so much with online research.IMO the online stats and demographics often times don't paint the correct picture.This especially tends to be the case for tertiary markets.Finding folks on the ground that "live and breath" the market is your key to success.Those folks on the ground are the one's that bring the "online stats and demographics" to life per se.They will know more accurately what's going on in their local market pretty much on a daily basis.I've always said that you can research online and find a market that has the best growth and cashflow potential.Find a property for a great price and on a great street and in a great area.But if your property manager or contractor are incompetent or cheats.You will loose money.So start with finding the right people first before finding the right market or deal.Just my opinion.Thanks 

The franchisor does marketing and helps with distribution to fill the hotel rooms as well as setting and enforcing brand standards.Banks prefer flagged properties because the franchisors enforce standards and these properties tend to benefit from their franchisee relationship in filling rooms.

@Evan Kralijic - Thanks for your frank opinion on Minneapolis, MN@Bruce Woodruff - I do tend to overthink.Thanks for all your responses.

Marty you've mentioned many times over reading through your posts that you tend to contact an owner within 30days of an auction on the home and I'm not sure how to find this information from my NOD list I've acquired.

They do tend to be more locals, but not exclusively.

I haven't researched it much but I tend to see a fair amount of listings for this type of home and am just interested if there are any regulations, rules, red flags I should know about if I decide to pursue this niche.

@Lloyd PreeceRecommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

Your transaction was not the norm, anytime you get lawyers involved to draft things, things tend to slow down. 

But I am quite a bit younger than you and tend to keep my properties leveraged.