I’ve been around real estate for decades, and I read in The Economist once that in lively markets like Charlotte, folks will pay a premium for a comfortable room if you’re near major employers.A friend of mine tried something similar out in Austin a while back.. he’d inherited a 4-bedroom property and split it into individual room rentals.

Real Estate Investing is for the vast majority of time not classical "investing", it's a business.

I live in New York and majority of the inventory on Long Island is too expensive for even renting. 

For us that's 15% off the top line I definitely am not familiar with a majority of the US but why would a host take occupancy taxes off the top?

There is no "secret" to finding them--- you just have to search, but most major metros have them.

So all my deals I put together or the vast majority had notes on them.

Thats a great way to profit of $177K in a year but she did know the contractors and the has an eye for those type of quick turn arounds.You will see multifamily 2-4 units a ton of duplex 2 units for under $250K again these are usually not turnkey fully renovated properties but they will pass an appraisal without being subject to any major repairs.

I have my own designs and after uploading them and sending them out for a few rounds of marketing I eventually received some un-deliverables and they were barely legible along with their being major defects during printing.

Philly, like a lot of major US cities, is very block by block.

The biggest employer shut down about a year ago and 3  hurricanes (2 major) hit directly in the last year.