Per this NY Times article, the average American knows around 600 people.https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/science/the-average-american-knows-how-many-people.html#:~:text=The%20average%20American%20knows%20about,do%20you%20know%20named%20Kevin%3FPer the US Census Bureau, the average American moves 11.7 time in their life, which based upon an approximate lifespan of 84 years, works out to be about every 7 years.https://www.census.gov/topics/population/migration/guidance/calculating-migration-expectancy.html#:~:text=Using%202007%20ACS%20data%2C%20it,one%20move%20per%20single%20yearSo, if the average American knows 600 people and they each move about every 7 years, that means that the average American knows around 85 people that move in any given year.How many of those moves do you want to be involved in?

Where to buy in Detroit is just as much art as science.

As you can probably tell, it's about as much art as science.

Surprisingly, Easy Street Capital has a fair number of science majors (myself included).

There is science then there is junk science.

It's not a perfect science (at least not at first) and the list of things that can go wrong is very long.

But the trick to a budget is making sure it satisfies your needs so you can stick to it - like they say about some diets - compliance is the science . 

Like your thinking, and I always mention Poughkeepsie as the fictional place in all my real estate hypothetical example (why do people do that?)...

For rent pricing it is a mad science of craigs and craigs test ads, zillow, rentometer and realtors/pms.

It could also be that the cashflow is fiction and the locals know that a property in that area will not deliver.