I'm also going in as an economics major, so i have a lot of job paths i can take, probably want to get into accounting or something like that.

Are they putting money into any specific neighborhoods or are they struggling economically?

Far too many investors have already made the decision to invest in Cleveland for me to dedicate any human capital trying to sway someone on the city if they still have doubts about it's overall economic climate. 

From my point of view, the city of South Lake Tahoe is in for some serious economic hurt, sooner rather than later.

My understanding is that many people consider the Treasury yield curve to be an, imperfect, indicator of future economic recession/expansion.

They are designed to incentivize long term investments in economically distressed areas by enticing investors with capital gains tax deferalls.

Assuming everything goes according to plan...massive economic events could easily disrupt those returns.As to your questions on fees:  Sponsor's typically charge acquisition fees ranging from 2% to 3% of the purchase price. 

Things to consider: PM is very time consuming and there are a lot of fair housing rules and regulations you have to keep up with to make sure you don't break the law.4plexes are fine and can get you a conventional 30 years mortgage but economically they behave more like residential than multifamily/commercial properties.

Demographic and Economic TrendsUnemployment and population 5 year trends-Under population, break down by age rangeJob diversity/Top 10 employers...ie. not one industry taking 20-25%Supply and demand: Vacancy, Med rent, Landlord/tenant friendliness as described above, upcoming constructionClimate is a fun one...is it relevant idk...i just like looking at climate trends of different places while i'm at it.Census.gov is great for all of this

If the economic environment gets distressed significantly I can still service my debt and operating expenses, I’ll just have to sacrifice some cash profits during a downturn.