I am a licensed Realtor in the KC area of Kansas, and when identifying "investment-worthy" neighborhoods for my clients, I take a holistic approach to evaluating the area.I don't use one single website, but I use City_Data to help gauge the employment, crime, population income, and other nitty gritty data of each specific zipcode or tract.

Given the cash flow loss on the 7% property, I think I need to remove the emotion and make the right business decision for my portfolio holistically.

I don't necessarily want to make real estate investing my fulltime career, but a very lucrative side hustle to my own business in holistic wellness and urban farming.In 2009, I WAS looking to make real estate investing my fulltime career, mostly as a wholesaler but I've since realized that I do not have a passion for that particular niche, but I do love the flexibility, cash flow, and wealth creation that building a healthy property portfolio provides.At any rate, I look forward to FINALLY engaging with people on the forums, learning, DOING, and sharing with others.

As all good investment strategies aim to give you a good return, a more holistic way to look at that is how the investment fits with your lifestyle/and or comfort level of risk.

Thank you for sharing your perspective—I completely agree with many of your points, and I’d like to clarify how our approach addresses some of the challenges you raised.I’m currently working with local municipalities, some of which rely on S8 housing programs, and part of my mission is to create an entity that can hedge their risk while also offering a more holistic approach.

If you look at the situation holistically, you aren't increasing your cash flow at all.

A holistic look at the the country as a whole is sometime hard when your familiar area is increasing in price or stay steady.

As investors we need to analyze things holistically not just in a vacuum. 

Toys for the lake, beach, camping, grilling, firepits where allowed, partnering with local businesses to create holistic experiences for the guests.

This entity will let you get all the fringe benefits of a corporation and write off most of your expenses, you may also decide to take a salary out of it for retirement purpose if you want in the future.With that kind of structure you get the best of both world and can adjust every year what passive or active income you get, while maximizing the tax code advantages.With these big concepts in mind, I would encourage you to consult with an asset protection and tax professional that can look holistically at your whole operation to guide you to the right structure.