West of telegraph and north of 7 mile.

I would say stay away from that, unless you want to get into low income housing.Also, the better areas in Redford tend to be west of Beech Daly when north of I-96, and at least half a mile west of Telegraph when south of I-96.

Are there areas (west/ east of telegraph or north/south of 96) to avoid?

We drove neighborhoods, a practice known as “driving for dollars,” and looked for abandoned homes with overgrown lawns, newspapers stacked in the driveway, and exterior decay.

You may not be able to get the full feel of the area with one visit.The one(s) that seem like moneymakers for you, maybe visit with no appointments two or three more times (not in the snow season) and just be a fly on the wall.Visit the grocery store parking lots and fast foods of the areas you like--see who is shopping, are their carts filled to the brim or is it small amounts of food--like they must eat out a lot.Stay in a (m)otel on the fringe of the area, eat on the restaurants the locals eat in (if they are not too dangerous).Go on line and watch their nightly local news, and read their local newspaper online.Talk to local Realtors about A, B C and D areas.Get the Feel for the place, for instance doing business in Chicago (in my opinion) is like falling off a log vs doing business in some other mid-western areas (the locals seem to make it easy and have good attitudes).Other areas the local governments make everything a PITA, with this inspection and that inspection, and local rules and regs as well as eviction feet dragging.

Washington Post article Food Stamps Put RI Town on Monthly Boom and Bust CycleDespite Concessions, Woonsocket's Pension is Forecast to Run Dry (Valley Breeze, the local newspaper to read for Woonsocket stuff)Appeal Period Expires on Supplemental Tax Suit (Valley Breeze)The last one is particularly relevant because the "supplemental tax" is a special extra tax bill Woonsocket sent out to property owners a few years ago, basically because they couldn't meet their expenses with property taxes alone.I like the general concept of investing where few others are, however I also give huge consideration to the fiscal stability of a city or town and how responsible its leadership appears to be.The latter is mainly because, if spending outweighs income a municipality can do one of two things: 1) reduce spending, 2) increase income (i.e., raise taxes).

If anyone wants to sell their house, not many people's first choice is a news paper ad, smoke signals, radio... they go online.

I in the past it was news papers, now it's 24/7 click bait.

Does your local newspaper have real estate editor/reporter. 

Thankfully I had ( & still do have) supportive people around me who would "swat my head with a rolled up newspaper" (figuratively speaking) & got me out of that destructive cycle.Thankfully, over the years I have my short list of tried & true favorites.