These just happened to go beyond what we were able to visually see. 

. :)Many times, the pipes will be updated visually, but galvanized behind the walls. 

Hey Mike, good discussion and good that you have some clear expectations going in.As others have mentioned, since you'll be living there, it can be better to start with a subset of cities that you'll genuinely enjoy living in, then work backwards into data and metrics from there.For the cities you mentioned, here's a visualization of current rent-to-price ratios.

@Ben ClingerHi Ben, I just noticed your post.Toledo just clarified their inspection criteria for section 8 houses and decided they wanted their cake and to eat it too...we don't have to have an interior inspection (since LMHA inspects that during their inspection), but we DO have to pay for a Lead Inspector contractor to visually inspect the exterior of the house and of course we DO have to pay the $45 fee (which is of course what this is all about).LMHA of course inspects the outside of houses along with the inside so the whole lead inspection is redundant.

They would send the handi men over and do the visual inspections, giving me a heads up on everything.  

We saw it and visually inspected it the first day on market and put in a no contingencies offer (no inspection, no appraisal, cash) immediately for $90,000.

Check out this data visualization I made showing migration by county, the rent/price (1% rule indicator) and population data.

I think that once she can get into the local community and have a visual reference of what is to come, things will become more clear for her.Tell me if I have totally missed the mark and I will quietly go back to my beer and popcorn and continue reading this thread ;-)

It's one of the few things you can't see during a showing/ visual inspection and I've seen issues up to $100k with sewer lines so it's worth the $150 to send a camera in and see what's going on.

I am not telling you to do one thing or another  Also, i believe that FHA will not allow renovations to a home unless it’s already livable with minimal to no repairs visually needed but go check.