After all if you are purchasing fix and flips, you use the exact same methodology to identify, analyze, and structure your deals.

Summary: enjoy the process, don't over think the details (at first), identify the demand and go find it through very specific and targeted marketing efforts.

Please identify a market where NOI is selling for only $$2.50 per dollar. 

There are a lot of great properties in the Cleveland market that fall into the 1% rule and seems to me like a good baseline metric for identifying good cash flow properties, but doesn't quite tell the whole story. 

My wife and I are planning on house hacking and we want to make sure we identify any major issues before purchasing the property.

Additionally, I set up a Carrot site and paid for a list of off-market houses in a few zip codes that I have identified as desirable flipping neighborhoods.

My suggestion is figure out what the goal is you want out of owning real estate and then figure out the strategy and what Market gives you the strategy.I did a series on BiggerPockets that you can see on YouTube that I help someone out of state purchase of property sight unseen.It's a 9 part series on the BP YouTube Channel and the biggest lessons and takeaways were to make sure that we knew what the end result of owning the property was and then we could identify the market and once we identified the market we built the team and then we started finding the deals.This person (Joe) had the team we built find deals basic on his criteria, purchased the property out of state , we closed on it, did a $30,000 rehab, got it rented, and he's never once been to the property.

I just need to identify where to buy.

., I didn't know how to get my head around my search for an article entitled "6 Metrics You Must Know to Identify Great Investments," and I actually found it after posting...however, I do wonder... 

Then just jump in once you identified your risk strategy, investment thesis, etc.