If you were thinking about buying a vacation rental in a more coastal neighborhood like Mission Beach or La Jolla (where the cost essentially necessitates the escalated income of an STR), I would likely advise you to wait to see where things go legislatively.However, the neighborhood you mentioned are not necessarily in that same category.

Nonetheless, even with their long experience, they often barely make a profit, which they say they don't mind - because their goal is to gentrify the whole neighborhood, one property at a time.

Dustin Verley thanks man, yeah I went down and visited a week or so ago and I could tell that neighborhood changes very quickly depending on which you go from the school.

Most are speculating the neighborhood will be close to a new high tech. another Amazon headquarter, Googl giant tech center etc. 

I currently have 8 units (9th owner occ) in that triplex, a duplex (2009), and 4-plex (2014),  all in south seattle / burien areas.Seattle is way overpriced and IMO due for some kind of correction right now ;  I don't see how things can continue to appreciate like this,  and at least within seattle itself many smaller MF properties are worth more for the dirt under them than the structure itself just for the redevelopment potential,  which is unfortunate at least from the perspective of an buy and hold investment viewpoint and availability of decent and comparatively affordable rental units in neighborhood-scale buildings. 

Yesterday my fiance and i found ourselves in Lynchburg looking at a 4bd 1.5ba home that has a lot of recent updates and "looks" like it could be the best house in the neighborhood.

To piggy back off of Joe Homs I personally like driving my target neighborhood and identifying “ugly” homes in a neighborhood.

He will have strong rental cashflow and substantial equity gain from the forced appreciation as well as neighborhood growth and increased demand.

there is deferred maintenance including roof replacement. this is in a turning neighborhood. 

How strong is the rental demand in this immediate neighborhood?