Without knowing your budget, what you consider safe\risk tolerance, how far you are willing to travel, asset type, your level of living expectations, lifestyle, local neighborhood expectations, the tenants\roommates you want to attract, and other criteria, it's hard to recommend an area.Your Class A, B, or C asset type class expectations versus another's view maybe totally different.  

Unless we can add value to the property in order to increase the rental income the returns are not attractive to us.Besides the one deal this year, not sure if we will do more this year or not.

Since I lost the original tenant prospect, and oil prices were falling, I decided to "jazz it up" as best as I could in hopes of attracting a strong tenant. 

Know your competition and how you attract renters to what you have.

It would make the area more attractive across the board.

If you attract an experienced investor, they probably don't need your help, but the offer will set you apart.

But in most cases that cash in hand and one loan, one payment based off of a 30 year fixed rate seems more attractive. 

Albany hasn't seen the population decrease that other upstate cities have, but it's not attracting people, either.

There are many other facets to it.I got into it because it was a passion of mine to do so and I finally found a way to pull the trigger.Flexability, freedom, no limit to how much you can make, no boss telling you what to do, active+passive options, and so much more is what attracts me and lots of others to this.In fact, if you like at many financial studies, the largest portion of the rich got there through RE investments, more so than inheritance, stocks, hard work, high paying jobs, etc.

If they require it to be listed, doesn't mean it has to be placed on MLS unless they require which therefore provides you with "non-mls" listed property and more attractive if you plan on flipping it. :)