That's how these "influencers" or whatever you call them make their money --- they are "selling" you something.At least you are asking to understand the realty. 

And if you’re worried about being able to save enough of your earnings to meet your retirement goals, building wealth through passive income is a strategy that might appeal to you, too.⁣⁣With affiliate marketing, website owners, social media “influencers” or bloggers promote a third party’s product by including a link to the product on their site or social media account.

Real estate is too much work to only earn the cap rate and not taking advantage of leverage removes real estates' primary advantage over other asset classes.Your long term expectations for inflation could influence your decision as well...paying low rate debt 5-10+ years from now is attractive to me.Middle of the road leverage is not a bad place to be either.

Some said internet leads, some said use your sphere of influence, others organize networking groups, and a handful insist on farming.   

This has shapedmy personality greatly giving me the ability to positively influence peoplethrough communication and presentation.My foundation is solid , I like helping the community, an excellent communicator and natural born salesman.

2- is this dictated, or influenced, by the areas I am investing in? 

All that mattered was the the land lord tried to exert influence on a disabled person's choice of where he was going to live, and that's a huge NO NO.Please...never, ever "suggest" to someone where they should live.  

Follow-up Boss, KV Core, LionDesk, Top Producer.Facebook and Instagram have been great platforms for staying in contact with our sphere of influence.

Amit, I also agree with you that the spillover effect from SF is stronger across than the hipster influence like this article references.

The markets will respond as the costs of borrowing drop (interest rates go down) you will see a move into CRE or as the returns of less riskier investments such as T Bills goes down you will see a move into CRE.The market value of the property will be influenced but not based solely on cash flow, NOI or cap rate.