I like to park across the street from a prospective property and see who comes and goes, what the traffic/parking situation is like...lots of people coming and going all the time basically tells me that someone has a popular and most likely, illegal business going on. 

@JD Martin your place sounds like a slice of heaven and for almost free it doesn't get any better.I do live in my home that was a rehab but the growth and increased traffic has diminished the quality of life here.

It's a low traffic area so hopefully I can get a few yrs before having to replace.I'll definitely take the most rent I can get. 

I had a vision that maybe I'd renovate it and sell it because it's smack in the middle of campus and I figured someone would want to open up shop considering all the foot traffic around it.Or is that just naivety?

We have been getting a lot of sec 8 traffic but have not found a qualified non sec 8 tenant yet.

Always consider traffic.  

If your parents are retiring..i would buy outside of Nashville, Dickson county, Cheatham county or Wilson Counties..if they are going to be working..and commuting..traffic is is getting worse every year..I would stay in Nashville.  

You have to weigh out, would you rather buy cheaper and face capital expenses in 5 years and pay that 100% out of pocket, or pay more, defer those cost to 15 to 20 years and only pay $2,000 for those capital expenses instead of 10k out of pocket.Last thing, if you buy in Cordova, do yourself a favor, go ahead and rip out those carpets in the high traffic areas, you will save yourself thousands.  

We live a couple of miles from campus and try to avoid cutting through by the university certain times of the day because of the awful traffic!

You would be surprised how many people get great shocks when they move in that they did not know about the evening noises from neighbours, or birds, or traffic or...A couple of miles away from where I live there are some really nice houses right alongside a row of trees that nest hundreds of small parrots.