When you go to sell years later you are in a major metro and in state,out of state, and possibly even foreign investors would fly in for a look to purchase it.The gap should be much wider in my opinion if you are not local to buy in weaker markets.  

No luck with attorneys in Venice, FL.  I

And I don't want to fly out once a week (lifestyle reasons) and those flights would kill overhead costs (budget reasons).  

When I bought it, the sister in law was doing a lot of REI in the area, so she was going to be my "boots on the ground"..... with the divorce they sold all the property they owner and she has move on....relationship with her is cordial but kind of awkward to ask for favors So my option is to fly there and check on some things, but even if I do that I cant be there long enough to oversee everything as far as quality and final product....until its all done....I'd rather be able to stop any issues before they go past the point of no returnMy brother can check but he is clueless when it comes to construction etc...he can send me pix, but first hand he would have no clue what he's looking at.

Given that there isn't all that much attractive in my immediate area (cap rates are very low), I am more or less location agnostic for my next purchase, and would be willing to fly/drive extended distances if I found property that was attractive enough.Ideally, I'd like to be able to perform a top-down analysis, filtering out cities with very low cap rates, and then further filtering based on macro-economic data to find markets that I would consider attractive from both a cashflow and appreciation standpoint.

"I have a simple, narrow question I'm too lazy to Google"2 I " I have an unanswerable, broad question and I'm looking for the roasted duck to fly into my open mouth"I.e. " What city is it best to invest in?""

Fly back to Los Angeles after having paid $3K for flights, hotels, and rental cars knowing it saved you from making a bad decision :)

Martin, I actually did some quick mental math and derived a new "rule" to answer someone's question on the fly. 1% rule, 50% rule, all these rules, now there's a new one.

It’s not like you’re going to fly and visit the rental to confirm a cost.

This is a health and safety matter due to the amount of flies and other issues that come with excessive poop that is left out in the open.