With the market trending soft/correcting, should I just pay the tax and shop harder/longer or go with an average deal to take advantage of deferred taxes? 

If it was a flip I would do whatever is trending in your area, not necessarily always white.

You will start to pick up on trends and have a better understanding of your market.

I think that it's being overlooked as an investment opportunity because the market has been so volatile with oil production coming and going but vacancies are becoming harder to find and quality properties are trending upward.

Smart Real Estate Market analysts please step forward!  My head continues to hurt as I read through where we are in the real estate cycle and where the safe money is going for next 5-7 years.  WSJ post article titled:...

@Tamika WycheZillowRentometer.comGoogle [city/state] rental market and you'll probably find local research on current rents and trends.

I've noticed a trend among neighborhoods that have revitalized, a common denominator among them is slow and steady decrease in DOM before the prices started to increase.

Do not see that trend in Philadelphia.

Both offer not only good cash flow, but have strong economic and demographic trends.

Try and go after some properties in the path of progress with parks/trails/commercial development and hopefully the areas will continue trending upwards.