Always4) Know trends of that market: rent rate, sales volume, jobs, economic drivers, large employers, population trends, etc.There is more, but those are the important ones.

If it’s a national bank forget it but if smaller and local...Research the property and the rehab costsPrepare a presentation to the bank about your skills experience and financeReach out to whoever is in charge of distressed assets and request a meetingIt’s possible they have internal metrics for veteran, community building and other loans that may give them an incentive to work with youPut together numbers that work for you—banks aren’t stupid and have their own drivers and it may get to the point where they perceive it to their advantage to get a loan off the books and back performing.

Look at the rental trends and economic drivers, not just the most recent rent comps.

Nothing has changed the truth of that statement in at least 150 years in America, and it has been tested through worse pandemics than this one.fed ex and UPS drivers on the west coast at least will make 50 to 75k a year ..  

That would be like the state denying you a drivers license because you didn't pay your rent.

Keep what you have, any handyman with a measuring tape can replace them in an hour, and that includes the driver to/ from whatever box store is closest.

Make sure to completely vet all showings social media, copy of birth certificate, drivers license, passport, blood sample, medical records, geneology report.Then be sure to record all conversations, make a journal of your thoughts and impressions of every interaction, be sure to have multiple go-pro cameras on your person, like attached to a helmet or body rig.

Columbus, Ohio as a market is very diverse and not concentrated to one or two economic drivers. 

good questions about the jobless people... if that's the target market for your rentals (bus drivers, delivery people), i guess it would affect you.regarding the first theory.... i dont think it's the driving that stresses people out. it's the number of hrs and amount of time they spend in the car that drives them crazy. i am willing to drive no more than 30 mins. after that point, i feel like i am missing on life (kids, looking at properties, balancing accounts/making offers, etc, etc). i can't believe people in the big cities drive hrs to go to work.. 

You say you used this method to pay down your mortgage in 7 years, but you omit the fact that it was the thousands of extra dollars you put toward principle that really did it.You're selling a jalopy and telling people it's the fastest car around, just because you drove it faster than most other drivers.