I did live in Philly during late 90s, which had neighborhoods that were architectural goldmines but looked like burned-out Beirut at the time. 

The engineering concentration has produced some commercial engineering companies  (ADTRAN, etc)Major Employers   - Aerospace/Defense       * Lockheed       * Raytheon       * Boeing       * Northrup Gumman   - Commercial       * ADTRAN       * Schools System       * HospitalAs for path for progress, I would recommend you research where Google Fiber is going in and the South Parkway Extension (http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2017/0...)The rent/price is okay but I would not expect much appreciation.

@Tina Huffman If the occupants are squatters, you have the risk of the property being vandalized or worse (e.g burned down).

Absent having an ability to close in their name and resell, "wholesaler" (really just an intermediary here) needs to engineer a better plan from the start.

I would recommend something similar to all this if you are serious.My 13 year old is looking seriously into being an electrical engineer. 

Make sure it gets it, because you can't burn it at both ends forever.

My primary occupation is as a network engineer for a local company.

Or what to do if the fire does come closer, even burn my places?

The bigger issue is this:  If the vested owner of the property and the beneficiary of the insurance don't match, there will be a problem if the place burns down. 

I've listened to DR for a long time and for the average w-2er, his basic advice of avoiding 'bad' debt on stuff that drops in value, to focus paying on one debt to knock it out, avoid keeping up with the Joneses with cars and stuff we don't need, spend less than you make, etc is sound.But... he was basically burned by a stove once so doesn't cook with a stove anymore.