As far as property hacking with a family of 4 2 cats and a dog that is on the fringe of impossible in my town of toms river and i don't want o uproot my kid's school to find the multifamily that would happen to accommodate us. 

It takes me 2 hours ish by public transit but I'd rather live out on the fringe than in the city.

If the centers leases are below market with a high cap and location is amazing you are insulated against market shifts.The junk properties on the fringe areas at highly inflated rent per sq ft when the national tenant leaves and rents trade down is the ones taking a beating.

Unlicensed brokers, acting as fringe operators skirting the laws have nothing to lose.

Investor are always riding the investment wave or staying just ahead of it (fringe areas).

Several of my clients have pulled this off recently, and one of them on the fringes of Logan Square which is a super-hot neighborhood. 

With that said, investing on the fringe of such locations is a good strategic move.  

Now, it rents for around $1,900 EACH.The block had been cleaned up for about a decade now and there are so many new luxury developments that the whole area has transformed to more wealthier families.Each one of the neighborhoods I bought in were fringe but transforming at the time.

Look on the fringes of the good stuff. 

Fringe neighborhoods are always hot for wholesalers, Third Ward is hot for developers, Whitefish Bay for many of my residential clients (and flippers) and Menomonee Falls is hot for builders.For buy and hold investors I always ask them about their target audience.