Quote from @Joseph Bushnell: I'm testing out the idea of building a data center and I was wondering if anybody has heard of owning the building and having a third party operate the data center itself.  

There aren't many co-ops in Southern California, mostly in LA or a senior community in Orange County, but there's not much of a discount between condos and co-ops - at most, 10%.What is your source of the 10% difference data?  

I'm looking at expanding into out of state and just trying to figure out what questions I should ask/data I should gather to make an informed decision!

And sounds like a good set of options you are looking at.Here's some data and visualization on recent trends in some of the markets mentioned here.

I used All the Rooms to get some general data.

Some might not be livable at purchase but 5k still seems cheap unless there is something off with the data. maybe the prices were reduced on unlivable properties due to back taxes being part of the deal for the purchase.

However, the suitability of buying and renting out a single-family home in Richmond can depend on various factors, such as market trends, rental demand, and property values (similar case with all markets, really.)Chatting with a local agent in the area can provide very helpful insights into the market, data, and specific neighborhoods.

They can't assess all the subjective data like overall layout, view from the living room window, the dogs next door that bark all day, the width of doorways, size of individual rooms, quality of kitchen cabinets and appliances, etc.The best thing to do is study your market regularly.

Hoping and praying for values to rise may not be a good strategy, but researching a market to understand the data make appreciation a near certainty can be a very good strategy that can dwarf the return from cash flow in the best cash flow markets.  

However I don’t have any real data just a personal opinion.What’s your thoughts?