I blame the popularity of HGTV :-)"The Property Brothers" and "Fixer Upper" ruined expectations for newbie flippers (everything easy, quick and profitable)."

Someone losing $100k of their $150k in lifetime retirement savings on a bad operator or simply unlucky market timing is a lot different and becomes a societal problem compared to someone else losing $100k of millions in savings.The SEC does not control our net worth and income...we control that ourselves, but that's not going to be a popular answer in Victim-america. 

To answer your question, my investors and me personally:We invest in west tampa due to the The City of Tampa expanding the Riverwalk, adding six more miles to the city’s popular trail to what will be a 12.2-mile multi-use pathway.We like VM Ybor because it is so close to the future large scale multi use development “GasWorx ''.We also invest near the Westshore Marina district… still south Tampa but at least you snag a deal south of Gandy and still be close.  

Assuming you are trying to find your lenders online, the most popular but most dangerous method of them all, do you know if the website you are looking at is actually owned by the lender?

The last question I have is, what is popular in your area?

Yes, Atlanta has a strong, popular (and therefore currently overbought!)

About $2,000 on a $2,800 PITI.Because we’re near the metro and in an area popular with the military, as well as doctors and school faculty, I think mid term rentals will be consistent tenants for us.With that in mind, I believed you can cashflow a few hundred bucks with mid term tenants and/or long term if the space is set up for multiple tenants.That’s our plan and we’ll pivot as we learn more and test theories!

I noticed on the MLS, though, that there are plenty of auction and foreclosed properties that are in popular neighborhoods where I live.

OK, I have never had a property (rental or personal residence) with a coal furnace but I understand that in the area, coal is still a popular heating source.We are looking at a rental property (duplex) that has electric baseboard heat on one side and a newer coal furnace on the other side.The question is how much of a deterrent to someone renting the property with a coal furnace? 

I've seen 2 years increase in popularity among banks.