Obviously, this should lead to an interview where you ask an exhaustive amount of questions, but it's a good place to start. 

This is NOT an exhaustive list and you may see many other interesting ways of identifying target areas out there (e.g. the Starbucks or Whole Foods indicator) so stay curious and keep learning!

I can withstand the cash outlay with my income and other cash reserves though.

Hopefully this isn't an oversimplification, not withstanding the caveats you mentioned, but because my current house was already paid for by me (only a few years of renters helping to pay the mortgage), it would make more sense to purchase a new property as an investment, where the tenants are essentially paying for the equity in the home....I see what you mean now for CoC not being the best metric...do you know where i can find a spreadsheet (a starting point) that I can adapt for my market to help me with the analysis.

While this is by no means an exhaustive list, the following questions will help you get started on your new journey.Do I Need a Partner?

Exhaust every possible outlet you can to contact any and all potential leads.

Social media vetting of tenants, exhaustive interviews of management companies, walk each unit, etc. 

It's an exhaustive process, but one that really needs attention.

Once you've exhausted your network, the other money raising methods will take some time to get off the ground and see results.

Just so I'm exhausting all options, if I told you we did have an aggressive attorney on retainer would that change things at all?