A good rule of thumb I like to tell clients is that if your activities are integral and income producing, where as if you were not to do the activitiy it would result in the property's financial health being worse off, it should count in general. 

I currently lean toward upstate NY and MI (Detroit metro) as I live in the west but have family in Canada not far from those locations and the idea of being able to visit family with trips that can double as business write-offs is appealing.

Are you buying them off-market with a turnkey provider or on the MLS?

Every two years, these leftovers are then auctioned off at something called a scavenger sale. 

If anyone here could you guide me or if you have a similar problem please let me know, it is really difficult to realize that I've been ripped off by these people.

@Jason Staine send me a message, I can help or bounce ideas off me! 

I would prefer emailing off some info and getting a rough quote before driving over and sitting down for a 2 hour shakedown by a new agent.I would also prefer me current agent not know I am aggressivly shopping around.I have a medium sized portfolio, 7 houses, liability, an auto, RV, renters policy etc.

Off the cuff, I think an STR would do well being close to Red Rocks, but I don't know the # properties available in the area. 

Cross reference with employers with higher education off linkedin (use an API), and see if there's a correlation between housing prices in districts which are being gentrified, school ratings over that time period, and housing prices (in fact maybe there's another correlation between if these employers work for recently IPO'd companies and are exercising fresh options to purchase real estate).

But all else being equal, it increases earlier year distributions, but reduces the sale distribution, since there is now a larger loan to pay off upon sale.