None of that even begins to start addressing plumbing issues, structural issues, covered up defects, defects created by the flipper and a thousand other things anybody in the construction business continually uncovers on a daily basis dealing with homeowners when that homeowner calls in a professional to do some renovations and exposes all the criminal activity that flippers do in the name of their profits.Now I hate to generalize, and their may be exceptions in other parts of the country, but I have 10 years of personal experience witnessing this over and over again here in Denver.

It is so nice to have such a supportive, giving, and knowledgeable community of people to be available as a resource.

I am originally from Minneapolis so I roughly paraphrased the Semi-sonic song "Closing Time" with the lyrics, "you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here" sweety.

Much like a home inspection, they try to uncover defects, minimize potential risk & use the info to inform the buyer.  

You have alot of not so nice areas sprinkled around nicer areas which you dont see as much in the nicer east side suburbs.

I don't post a lot of Before & Afters here (I know people get bored of them), but this one is so nice that I wanted to give some credit where it's due...This was a three-way BiggerPockets partnership between @Todd Whiddon, myself and another BP member who would prefer to remain nameless (he shuns the celebrity lifestyle ;-). 

@Joel Owens - thanks for weighing on this...my question was poorly worded, I meant more how do you determine where to invest based on economic factors...for example if two houses cost the same with same economics but one is in town Y and other in town X which both may be in different states Essentially, I have looked at a number of areas and have uncovered what I think are several decent areas to invest in should the right deal present itself, but trying to narrow down to one and focus on it...so wondering how others hone in on a place to investigate and then invest?

Like any city, Dayton has nice areas and not so nice areas.

By that time we should have uncovered most of the skeletons in the closets and have a good idea that the deal is reasonably solid.

Areas like Fountain Square and Broad Ripple have great opportunity, but from what I uncovered, Fountain Square is more of a FLIP area with low rents and rent/value ratios don't pencil with a fully REHABBED property.