Union or not, many consider places like Decatur, Muscle Shoals, and even Birmingham or Nashville home.  

It looks to have a promising future especially for those that can market it to the masses. - sophisticated value adds: development, TIC/coop, take advantage of localized regulations (2 off the top of my head: San Jose lot split for ADUs, San Diego city unlimited ADU count in existing conforming building), etc.  

Additionally, we can provide insights and assistance if you're interested in investing in the Muscle Shoals, Alabama area.

Local to you in Mass as well!

@Gino Barbaro Congrats on getting your new book to the masses!

The masses will roll out and multiple bids over ask will come back.

@Daniel McDonald will be a good house hacking resource to you in Mass.

Phoenix, Houston, and Dallas are massive, sprawling land masses of cities/metro areas.

This doesn't mean that you shouldn't be ambitious with your objectives, as long as you're realistic.I have years of experience with short-term rentals in Mexico but I'm not sure how useful that can be to you since I invest in beach markets where there is mass tourism and visitors rent for one or multiple weeks so it's fairly different.

I chose Avail compared to the leading ones because of the mass syndication on listings.