Hi @Hunter Gibson, in my experience, you'd do well for a STR or LTR in Denver, Mooresville, Huntersville, or even University/North Charlotte if your desired demographics are out-of-towners or staycationers looking to AirBNB / travel nurses.

Looking Fl & TX but having a hard-time getting cashflow + general ignorance of area demographics. 

I own a plumbing business and spend very little on advertising.Facebook is a great place to market to specific demographics. living in a tight knit community, theres alot of local private groups where people are always asking for contractors.

(Use tools like loopnet, Costar demographics, and crime maps.

As long as historical trends continue Real Estate is a safe bet but there are plenty of markets with poor demographics that have maybe just kept up with inflation.

As we already had long discussions on this the appreciation topic, I am one of those investors who believes that faster than normal appreciation can be predicted in certain emerging real estate markets with thorough research and demographics studies.Also unless you are an investor like @Jay Hinrichs who has more than 35 year of experience in this industry, I am a strong believer of concentrating my real estate investments into 1 or 2  farm markets.

I cash flow about 600/month and 10% COC but one thing I wish I did was tailor my purchase more towards the midterm demographic, which is travel nurses. 

May I encourage you to consider looking into the employment rates and the especially the demographic movements with the surrounding zip codes.

Demographics, etc...

D - Demographics - Is the area growing in population or declining (year-over-year)?