We are entering the prime buying season - find other local investors and get their interest.With that said, there are a couple things that are unclear from your post. - The as is appraisal was for 275K,yet you are now expecting that it would be a reach to sell for 220K.

If not, many will withdraw their listings by spring, content to hold for another vacation season ($$$). 

The short version is that you want a strong and diverse job market, low unemployment rates, a growing population, low vacancy rates and new development, affordability/cost of living, real estate laws and court system, good schools, and low crime.Check out the videos from Dave Meyers with BiggerPockets.

Occasionally I'll see properties coming on the market where the seller has a VA loan with a low interest rate.  

Every flipper has found themselves at Lowe's for the fourth time in a single day, picking up yet another piece of material for a project.

Personally, I would never live in PHX, but that is all personal biases (I prefer seasons and greenery), and clearly lots of people choose to live in PHX.At the end of the day, I would argue market selection almost only comes into play when you are talking assets that cater to institutional buyers that have to get investment committee sign off. 

I interact with first time house hackers / seasoned investors on a daily basis.

Hey @Troy Smith we don't have a seasoning period if you had done your fix and flip loan with us, in your case, you would have a 3-month seasoning period for our DSCR loans.

BUT The points they charge and interest are both way higher than normal, on some deals I ran numbers the points and interest were going to be 20k on properties where the ARV is 100k so you have to get properties at such a low price to make it work that it is so hard.

There's always a spike this year as we get into the Spring selling season.