Starting off, its a good idea to know your areas.How do you discern if a house is inherited or not?

On the surface, they seem like a good way to create annual cash flow.For those who invest in REITs, how do you go about discerning which ones are good and which ones are not?  

I personally can't outsource that discernment to someone in a different market. 

Read the lease agreement with a discerning eye (as I did not until it was too late), and look for those pitfalls or loopholes that could have you at the tenant's mercy.  

I am wanting to discern the best strategy.  

Quote: Don't get greedy: We all want to make a great buy, but ... a few thousand dollars one way or the other won't make a discernible difference ... another 10K on a 400K house amounts to an additional $50/mo ... what you might spend each year at Starbucks.

I think it is an incredible gift to be able to discern those types of trends before they happen.

The holes had no discernible pattern either.  

The properties all get mortgages and are insurable, so it really doesn't have any discernible impact. 

Interested in Charlotte as well but more discerning criteria.