If you don’t really know the market, surround yourself with people that do and start learning about cap rates in that market, vacancy rates, rental growth rates, unemployment rates, employers (job generators), governmental policies and regulations, and so on.

My partner and I are looking to dial in a business growth plan with financial growth projections.

As far as Oxon Hill, due to it's close proximity to NoVA, DC and it's shared land of the National Harbor,, yes, Oxon Hill has already seen and is still destined for growth economically and the real estate values and rents will follow. 

Thanks in advance Hi Cristian, I would look at the population growth of some of the different cities that you're considering.

A bunch of factors...proximity to NYC, landlord friendly, positive economic factors such as job growth, wage growth, new developments etc. and real estate factors such housing price, price to rent ratio, cap rates etc.  

People and companies are still coming to Raleigh which are two metrics many longer term investors look at (job and population growth). 

Columbus has lots of job opportunities and population growth.

These homes will serve as a strategic investment benchmark to allow for larger rental growth over the next 3-5 years.

Found this historically appreciation data by state: Mapped: The Growth in U.S.

What’s more, DSCR lenders would allow you to qualify these mortgage loans using the actual prior years’ history of booking income from your STRs (“TTM Actuals Method”), or if that wasn’t available, a non-DTI qualification based on “long-term market rents.”This led to the next hyper-growth phase of STRs as many investors used DSCR loans to scale their portfolios, acquire lots of properties and build strong cash-flowing businesses.