@Mark Anderson so many possibilities but here's where I'd start:1) What areas have the highest long-term growth and public/private sector investment?  

My first recommendation would be to educate yourself as much as possible on the real estate market, particularly the multi-family sector.

Money that stays in the private sector is spent way more efficiently,  and often has a larger local impact.   

The wealthiest of seniors are well taken care of by the private sector in nursing homes and lesser forms of assisted living situations that start at $5000 per month and can rapidly escalate.

Although I mainly work on commercial, private, and public sector construction projects, I am hoping to use my experience with construction, rehabbing, and contractors to my advantage in residential real estate investing.I am interested in the residential side of real estate investing and plan to focus on the Buy and Hold and BRRR strategies.

Personal reasons that had nothing to do with real estate combined with the heavy amount of competition, particularly in the wholesale sector.

PEW Institute research has shown that the average return on investment for the senior housing/assisted living asset-class, substantially outperforms all others within the real estate sector. 

Probably biggest item is population growth.There are some things I think you can only get from MLS; I have gotten some GRM, $/sf, avg days on market data for a market from RE agent.you can get employment (sector and growth) data from bls.gov, but only for the bigger markets

The real estate sector in the United States is crowded with too many investors already, this makes it very competitive and leads to higher prices. discuss investing in real estate in DubaiThere is a guaranteed 25% ROI yearly on invest  in short holiday renta properties in Dubai

A diversified portfolio could help protect against sudden downturns in a single sector or company.