I'm not familiar with your neck of the woods, but I have built two tiny houses for personal use (stick, built block foundation, and shipping container), and looked into several communities when I was scouting land for my off grid projects.

Airbnb: Another fun way I've also tried are scouting the city on Airbnb.

One site that I always find myself on is Neighborhood scout. 

You can find a great rental property in Austin, but understand you will need patience to scout many deals before finding one. 99 out of 100 won't pencil out for decent cash flow after expenses and taxes.

- So, right now, I am scouting for a sweat spot, where it is something I would like to go to when I am retired and can hold and rent it, but if I end not wanting it after 15-20 years as predicted, then I can easilty sell it.

There are other apps for neighborhood metrics as well like Neighbhorhood Scout, PropertyShark, etc. 

A reason to invest in SLC is that you are local and know the good neighborhoods are atleast can better scout them out.

I have a pre-approval from the bank and am now at the stage of hitting the pavement and checking out neighborhoods where I've scouted out homes. 

Purchase price: $159,000 Cash invested: $50,000 Scouted area with favorable existing multi-family zoning on under-utilized lots.

I'm based near Boston but was just in PR on a mini scouting trip.