Renting could allow you to focus on paying down debt and saving for a larger down payment, while buying now could help you start building equity or even generate passive income through house hacking.

Yes, this is an unsexy option and it doesn't offer the same tax benefits, but you would benefit from reduced volatility (so long as you don't obsess over fluctuating stock prices), greater liquidity, stronger management teams and superior assets.

Generally larger commercial properties and shopping centers are easier to classify with hard and fast rules, but to the points above the residential areas really move very quickly and have way more nuance than most people care to admit.zip codes are generally way too large for my liking at least in my market to provide any kind of insights other than macro level economics but even then highways or rivers that cut through a zip code can end up with totally different trade areas.we can get pretty granular with cellphone data and with grocery center data to understand the trade areas and their true boundaries, but that kind of data pull is generally only cost effective for investors doing larger scale projects or developments, and honestly we still just end up getting on the ground and feeling it out, so I generally tell people that the money is better spent on a plane ticket and weekend trip in the area you are looking rather than any kind of "trade area" level data studies.and generally B class in 1 area means something different than another. 

Drag is very real with HML which is what they are doing.. you sacrifice drag for high liquidity when your doing those types of deals as an investor in HML/PML 's  

Your story resonates with me and my partners, as we too ventured into Detroit's real estate market, albeit on a larger scale, and have faced some significant challenges.In the early days of COVID-19, my partners and I invested in land in Detroit's vibrant Corktown neighborhood with the intention of building 42 townhouses and a 72-unit rental building.

Sometimes larger portfolios for sale will have owner financing terms a seller is willing to accept (always negotiable). 

I have lumber liquidators, home Depot, Lowe's, and who knows what else near me (central CT).

I think you need to treat those 2-4 buildings almost like larger building looking for upside in rents and/or reductions in expenses in order to get it to cash flow.

The liquidation cost is on the high end at 10%, which is just what I estimated, so I now have plenty of margin, making math easy. 

HUD recently has been liquidating these properties and the notes sold to 3rd parties.