We entered the market a similar time to you and have seen opportunities shrink up even in the short period. 

Toilet should move to the shower outlet position, sink should shrink down to a 16-inch vanity, or even better, a wall-mounted faucet and a vessel sink on a pretty little custom vanity.The key here is to convince the buyer that "it's small but it's NICE."

These shrink very slowly and can cause floors out of level.Decrepit plumbing / leaky waste lines.Look for wood destroying insect damage. 

Cap rates are shrinking as interest rates are still really low.

If it sits around your spread is going to shrink every month... 

The pool of lenders shrinks considerably, especially since the Fannie/Freddie agency options go away.

I was curious, have you seen returns shrink also on the syndication side as well? 

Beyond that- is the population in the area growing or shrinking?

There will be winners  with growth and losers that don't grow or shrink.

Sales up, days on the market dropped, inventory keeps shrinking.