School of hard knocks for a first time landlord.

If I was a superior investor I would go a knocking, property to property, on the same street, and find out from those property managers/landlords/leasing agents.Excellent point about the lease history.  

Best thing about them was I knocked out the course in about 1/4 the time it was supposed to take. 

If they had just knocked the original plaster out & attached the drywall to the existing lath & joists, it would've been fine.

You can knock out a lot of research on there.

Not that I have done it of course, but if you simply knock on the door, have a sympathetic type conversation with the occupant, you can find out if they are the owner, a tenant, ask about their intentions, etc.  

Yard sign, logoed open house signs, door knocking, open house flyers, just sold flyers, etc etc

Spend time on Biggerpockets, Youtube or Warriorforum and you will learn some great ways to drive target traffic to your sites and help peopleI am not knocking SEO or other techniques, All I am saying is do what you know will provide value to you and your target market.   

If you self manage the lower end stuff, just know they do NOT think like we do.I got knocked in the dirt in 2007 and my first rehab when I got back in the game was a $14k purchase. 

Always, always knock on the door.