I like to park across the street from a prospective property and see who comes and goes, what the traffic/parking situation is like...lots of people coming and going all the time basically tells me that someone has a popular and most likely, illegal business going on. 

@JD Martin your place sounds like a slice of heaven and for almost free it doesn't get any better.I do live in my home that was a rehab but the growth and increased traffic has diminished the quality of life here.

If you can acquire a strip center for example with a strong anchored tenant in a high traffic area you can produce some very favorable returns.

For one like said above Pearland is very nice yes but extremely saturated, the traffic there on it’s own is very bad.

However, it is a bit too small and slow from our surrounding larger cities (Orlando, Gainesville, Tampa & Daytona)My worse nightmare is regular heavy traffic since I drive quite a bit for work so I prefer to visit the larger nearby cities, but not actually live there.Being a Florida resident we get substantial discounts for annual passes to Disney and having children we go to Orlando often.

Also, how can I find out what the traffic count for a street is?

I have also found flat paint covers better than eggshell for touchups in low traffic areas and HD has a new scuff resistant one I would like to try at some point.  

We had one dirt road going into town and we would fly the kites at Bells Ferry and HWY 92.I moved to Canton, GA about 15 minutes away 8 years ago because of traffic issues.Woodstock for the most part is a good area but it still has it's iffy spots like any city.

Also the motivation will be different based on the tenant base and expected rents and what finishes they expect for the area,how long you hold the property for,if you are an accidental landlord where you have to rent out by necessity,or you actually purchased this property as a rental in the beginning.Many factors will play into what decision you make.What you can also do is refinish the wood floors and then buy a big area rug for cheap to throw down for the high traffic area and only the corners would be exposed.

You would be surprised how many people get great shocks when they move in that they did not know about the evening noises from neighbours, or birds, or traffic or...A couple of miles away from where I live there are some really nice houses right alongside a row of trees that nest hundreds of small parrots.