You want the condition of your rentals to be at least as good as similar ones, depending on your targeted demographic.

Regarding raising families in the city of Chicago- The demographic of the communities where homeownership & population are growing is very young.  

I am interested in starting a direct mail campaign, followed by door knocking and phone calls.  I DO NOT INVEST IN THE HOOD.  I am looking for help from investors who invest in suburban neighborhoods in good school di...

I like the web site bestplaces.net which will compare these attributes including population, demographics, education level of people, crime rate etc.  

I'm looking for info from the folks currently working in the area (anywhere on Long Island, and even Brooklyn/Queens) as to where they are buying, general specs on the properties such as size, price range, and market trends/demographic info that have produced successful results. 

A Realtor who is active in their market and areas should know things from demographics to price points to market appreciation and other valuable information, and if they do not off of the top of their heads, they can easily access that information or find someone right away in their network who does.That is briefly some of the highlights of what advantages there are, but keep and mind that there are more and others can jump in and add to this start. 

Direct mail is REALLY good... word of advice though.. everyone starts with the absentee owners list from listsource... that demographic is saturated.. dig deep.. target leads that require work.. that 9 out of 10 other wholesalers aren't doing.. thats what im in the process of doing now... and i've seen how it worked out from the results from my last mailer.

In investigating and executing on project one, and now project two, we are curious about how to turn this into either a side business that helps make us some additional short term lumpy revenue as well as long term rental revenue, depending on the property, geography, and demographic.  

I would say that it isn't so much about unit count but the right mix of unit types for the demographics of your market.

I seem to have a different demographic than most of the regulars here.