There are various sites for different data points.

I can assure you that there's nothing in real estate that you're going to do that's truly new.You are really discussing two, very different strategies.Marketing to surviving family members of deceased persons requires identifying the opportunity by a published obit, matching the data with record owners and contacting the heirs and beneficiaries. 

You have way more control over the data you receive/access and can submit offers way more efficiently.  

This month's session is on data analytics and our property management database.  

My 37yr career in software has taught me that unless your data is on your systems and devices, then you can expect data loss and data theft.To keep privacy, don't post or upload anywhere (including the 'cloud' products).

@Kody BroussardThe real-data software is nice ... we wrote our own modelling system (because we are software geeks).   

It seems as though an investor needs current and future jobs data, vacancy rates, rental rate in area, crime rates, etc, in order to determine whether a rental property is a good buy or not.Can anyone tell me what are the reliable sources where this type info is obtained.?

I am curious on how the data is available to you, unless you are talking about an REO. 

Property Radar has data on foreclosures, foreclosures, and auction houses, and shows you on a map in relation to your location.

You need real data (as much as you can extract) and a thorough discounted cash-flow analysis as a minimum before you ink a cheque.My only reference to percentages in this thread was indicating you should analyse your deals with historical debt service interest rates {since we are in an environment where rates are more probable to rise} to see if they still stand on their own.