I think the answer could be obvious but so as to not influence your response id be keen to hear your reasons directly and if there would be any scenario in which these concerns could be alleviated. 

Cities are engaged in the social aspects of property ownership, low moderate income housing, middle income neighborhoods, several reasons why but it often for keeping the tax basis more favorable and, political bodies have image problems favoring landlords or investors who are in business, there is a line where government is to stay out of business and influence competition. 

I have a desire to support uplifting/encouraging art in Houston, for the art (music, performing arts, visual arts) is the heartbeat of the culture of a city, help propel the local church I am a part of to new levels of influence and ability to help (they have a large prison and drug addict ministry), and to provide future employment/contract work that can help establish good character and personal development in said employees.Real Estate/Business has the potential to impact on a city level what would be nearly impossible to do in the position of a W2 salary, even at higher levels in the corporate ladder IMO.This impact potential gets me absolutely jazzed.And so since November I have devoured books, burned through podcasts, employed my excel and access skillz, joined a local REI club, met up with local investors, read numerous BP threads/blogs, and now begun the actual deployment of action steps.The beginning of March has marked the real start of a new endeavor along side my engineering day job... heading down the Wholesaling route, seeing as deals are the must-have corner stone for this entire business. 

Why should what we make influence the worthiness of the investment?

Me bcoz of their influenced and  majority of the population (abt 70%) here in Spore are Chinese; somehow I will factor fengshui when giving advise to my client and when I am looking at the property too.

Also, tell the realtor you DO NOT want bank purchases in your comps as that has no influence on market value.

When inflation kicks in once again the penalty paid for using ROI instead of NPV will increase.I am not sure how do you mean the influence of the inflation in the NPV calculation.I am using this formula:... where the i is a discount rate, t is the year and CFt Cash flow in that year.In my opinion the influence of inflation isn't included in the NPV formula, but let me know.

While the quality of employees varies and is influenced by motivation, you'll get more bang for your buck in RE, IMO, on commissions.

Are there other properties for sale on the block that you could purchase to help influence the area in a positive direction?

I started with The Richest Man in Babylon, The Next Step to Waking Up the Financial Genius Inside you, How to Win Freinds and Influence People, and The 4-Hour Work Week... and read all four in 4 weeks.