Clearly you want a good operator and a good manager at minimum, but an area increasing in average rents by 4% a year and seeing a 3% per year influx of immigrants and with a plentiful and diverse jobs base can tolerate a little "sleeping at the wheel" on the part of operators. 

After doing some research, it looks like job growth, industry diversity, and population growth are all strong in the area.

My Remodeling company is small but diverse.

@Chuck Holland , good point on the vacancy and diversity..

Why Phoenix: Jobs and the economy, we are growing at a rapid rate with great diversity in employment sectors.

As some ofyou mentioned, diversity is probably the way to go.

Normally when investors have a diverse basket of assets, when one goes down, the rise of another makes up for it.

In particular, the housing industry has created an incredibly diverse group of entrepreneurs and success stories, that can be shared with future generations.

Personally I only work in the San Antonio, TX area so that is the bulk of my experience, but it's hard to go wrong targeting affordable cities with a diverse economy.

Diverse industries, academia, healthcare.. auto production and housing got hit hard in 2007 leading to phenom deals for investors with enough cash to complete rehabs and hold long term.