Also declining populations were you have net out migration this can cause surplus of rentals and rents to drop and stay down. 

I invest in the midwest and would say you really have to be careful of secondary markets as net population migration is into other areas of US.

That the established players have the old way and it works well for them given they have already built a network of investors.That new operators, who used to have to use the 'old way', will migrate to the crowdfunding model (SEC definition)?

You could experiment with the result of turning off that meter valve.Your sump pump should be expelling ground water that has migrated to the basement or crawl space.

If you treat only the top unit, the roaches will migrate to the untreated unit. 

Unemployment is at 60 year low, this is best time to increase interest rate, but that will impact economy and current government like market stay inflated.In Every recession Fed reduce 4-5% interest rate, we are not at even 4% now... not sure what will happen in next recession.Major dilemma is to invest or not... best bet is invest where there is highest in migration, those area will be safe over longer period.

Recently migrated to the US to grow the operation here, however, due to a few recent changes in the organization I'm likely going to be leaving the next 3 months with a significant lump sum. 

The property has a lot of upside, we can build a third bedroom in the basement, update the kitchen and bathrooms, and the market keeps going up with a lot of people migrating into the area. 

I am also keenly aware of the quirks in the data, such as the fact that a city that expands its geographic boundaries will exhibit "population growth" but not a change in "migration".

Look at net migration and emigration.