Problem is anyone you talk to is going to favor whatever they know.  

I always approach the owners as I am trying to do them a favor. :)

With experience you will get favorable terms from hml.

From what I've been able to gather, it looks like the downtown, east end, and saint matthews submarkets appear to have the highest vacancies for multi-family (not to mention, the least favorable rent:price ratios, at least for small apartments), but does this hold up as well for single family rentals?

Here are some focus points for you to work on now that will put you in a more favorable position to invest once you graduate. 1.

It's rare for the assistance to actually work out in your favor.

Look for markets where jobs are growing, incomes are growing, good job diversification, housing is affordable, rents are stable and/or climbing, vacancy is low, and unemployment is low... that will tilt the cards in your favor. 

Most of my developers use cash for keys, but that can get very pricy here as the tenant population is fairly educated with the laws in their favor.

(I posted it to BP as a favor for the guy who runs the group since he's not on BP himself.)And generally, the monthly meetings are also good sources of information too as there are different local speakers on a variety of topics, for example the one last week had an attorney speaking on the topic of residential lease clauses.I also often recommend the introductory classes for new real estate agents, even to new investors who have no real intention of becoming an agent, because I think there is still a lot of value for the money as far as being a great introduction to residential real estate, understanding the agent/broker side of things, etc.

may get a favorable result.