City-Data and Census.gov are solid resources, and sites like Rentometer can give you a good sense of rental prices.After that, I narrow it down to neighborhoods with strong fundamentals—good schools, low crime, and convenient amenities.

The rental market is already showing signs of recovery:Spring Is Coming: Historically, the rental market picks up momentum in the spring as tenants prepare to move during warmer months or ahead of the school year.Early 2025 Trends Are Positive: In just the first week of January, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in rental applications, suggesting pent-up demand from renters who delayed their searches in November and December.What Landlords Can Do NowTo make the most of this recovery, consider:Refreshing Your Listings: Update your photos, descriptions, and pricing to ensure your properties stand out.Offering Incentives: Temporary discounts or move-in bonuses can help fill vacancies quickly.Being Patient: The market is already bouncing back, so don’t panic if your property takes a bit longer to lease than usual.What’s been your experience?

HUD targets average rents for an area, so just like average school grades, this typically translates to Class C property rents.In our Metro Detroit market, the MAJORITY of the claims about getting higher than market rents can be traced to a Class D Neighborhood/Property. 

BP has built a great selection, all of them worth reading and that will help you build foundational knowledge.To answer this one: the words from old school investor Dolf De Roos "seldom sell" and you will find a lot of post on BP from people who regret selling properties in the past.

For context, before I learned about his 6 unit I was planning to purchase a 2-3 unit long term rental in Q1 2025 as my first of many deals with a 5 year goal of financial freedom so I can coach my daughter's high school cross country and track teams.

I went to school at Washburn and my thoughts and numbers are pretty thin in Topeka.

The plan was to buy a warehouse, lay down turf and hard courts and lease the space to local schools and leagues and host tournaments.

Just in the past few years we've seen rapid growth in cafe's, yoga schools, restaurants and amenities operated by younger entrepreneurs. - The smaller more 'luxury' coastal areas such as Bandon, Arch Cape, Manzanita, Florence and Cannon Beach could see dramatic valuation increases as could luxury coastal estates.

And it's not only the homes, you also have to fortify your grocery stores, schools and anything else.

As you've mentioned, great schools, area in general is nice and it's centrally located.