From what I can tell so far from market research, it seems like rental popularity is really trending up over the past 5 years in Evansville and the surrounding area.

This is why IRR is used by sophisticated and institutional level investors.Understand this: the longer an investment takes time wise, the more likely the total IRR will be lower and trend downward.

Realtor.com has a great Inventory Trends data report, and also a Sales Trends, but that is currently "coming soon"...

I will buck the trend here and say we've used FoAC as a wholesale lender and they were great to work with. 

It similarly has nothing to do with the dogs, it has everything to do with what these idiots with mean hearts currently trend towards.

Also, even if you take an older property and do a full renovation (new plumbing, electrical, roof, etc, etc.) it is unlikely that you will be able to provide all the amenities that new(er) construction probably do (e.g. exercise room, higher ceilings)The counter example is a old building that was build with large units and lots of architectural detail in a 'trending' part of the city.

But right now it's trending up.

My sense is that these condos are going to continue to trend down in price until they bottom out somewhere way lower than the asking price.

I moved 3 years ago from Hawai) I live in the north central Phoenix area and have been watching the trends in the market here over the past 9 months.  

Google "vacancy rate" for that city/neighborhood to find out if the area vacancy rate is trending up or down.