The city would come flush the system, and said everyone needs to stop flushing wipes and pouring grease down drains, etc.

Akron, while not a 24 hour city, is still a generally stable, established city.  

The City seems open to it as long as the contracts are structured the right way.

My suggestion is to find some real estate industry surveys (via CBRE or others) and look for the MF cap rates in various cities/states/regions.

I’m a New York City native, but purchasing any type of real estate in this area is not realistic for me. 

I wouldn't consider it a heavy negative unless the street is super tight and parking is hard to come by or if the street is very steep/busy.The more desirable dense city neighborhoods it's almost kind of expected and off street parking would be considered a luxury rather than a necessity.If you get out into the suburbs I would say it's more of a big deal since more rentals have off street parking or a garage there.

I learned about the city over time and began my out-of-state investing journey.Whatever market you choose, be sure to nail down your buy box.

Hey @Nevin Wilkie. have you looked on the city or county's tax records to find the mailing address for the owner when it's different than the address of the property you want to buy?

Do you have a personal connection to either of those cities/markets?

If you need some connections, I run the most active group of small landlords in the city and have a network of connections that you could potentially leverage.