@James Kojo- This is one of the biggest challenges you will encounter in the business of buying apartments- getting good financials and the details you need to move forward.  

The issue is that in those areas there is not many multifamily properties when compared to a larger city like Torrington or Winsted. 

very important, i have student rentals next to a college, the college expanded and added dorms, all was good for 2 years after, then enrollment went down. the college changed it's policy and instead of just Freshman being required to stay at dorms they made it so that Freshman and Sophomores had to stay in dorms, took a big hit on the town rental. you need to figure that Sophomore year is a big year for student rentals, kids start to drop out after that year, so those would be your biggest rental.

All we can do as investors is keep an eye on the underlying fundamentals of the particular city we are looking to invest in.

I also work in different parts of town, so we're interested in something very central, hopefully in a decent (or very soon to be decent) neighborhood with good/quick access to different parts of the city.

I have already checked with the city, and there isn't a process for checking the readings online or anything, so my only option would be to drop by the property and look at the meter myself.

There was a 75 unit motel in my city that sold for $600,000 recently, and it needed maybe $150,000 total in rehab costs.

The zoning requires 5,000 sqft but I went to city of Miami building department and they notified I can build within the setbacks which ended up being 1,200sqft of build-able area.

I've been to Phoenix, Scottsdale, and the other cities nearby at Arizona and you are definitely right that it is much cheaper over there.

Being new to the area, getting a lay of the land is my biggest learning curve.