There's a greater likelihood of parties, increased traffic, excess wear-and-tear, etc.

I hear the proximity to the airport, being near Lake Wylie, and less rush hour traffic are the main motivators drawing in the speculative investor.  

What kind of traffic is there? 

Since I spend a lot of time in traffic, I have had plenty of time to listen to audio books, and one that has really inspired me is David Greene's "Long Distance Real-Estate Investing".Hoping to hear from others who have invested out-of-state without going the turnkey route, others who invest in Columbus, or anyone else who would like to network or share experiences! 

The general market average homes have gone up a lot, but the luxury market is a lot different it seems. 17 mins from Inglewood with zero traffic maybe haha, sometimes it can take 30 mins or more just to get on the 405 from brentwood...although haven't been around that area for a while during rush hour..used to commute from there to the SFV and with the construction and traffic on sunset would take forever just to get on the freeway.

I haven't found it necessary to self-promote, as my reputation precedes me, and I'm noticing for the first time this year I am getting a fair amount of traffic via referrals from other tenants prior to posting any ads.

Other ways of finding motivated sellers are driving for dollars if you have the time or more costly things like building a webpage and doing Google AdWords, FaceBook Ads and SEO to generate traffic to your website.

Now, rents have gone up at least 30%, traffic is awful again.

You as a flipper put out a good product and you’ll still get top dollar.As Jay has stated the new strategy seems to be shifting from list price is set below market to generate foot traffic for multiple bids and revert back to pricing it to market or slightly above for concessions as it’s slowly shifting to buyers market.But I agree, don’t expect insane triple digit net margins anymore.

Eek, are you in rush hour traffic every day then?