It can help you create a short listPopulation growth, employment growth, wage growth, composition of business types are the most important factors in the health of the market.

I like it when new investors ask for partnerships rather than employment.

The whole time I grew up, I was told, "grow up, go to college and get a good job" or "go to the military because employers value military experience."

But, if the employer already budgeted for 10/hour and the government adds an extra 5/ hr then the business' bottom line is not affected, so therefore the price should not have to raise unless to do so due to "natural" occurring inflation. 

Called the contact they gave me for employment verification, checked out.

Also, have any of you seen negative impacts on your house/rental when a major employer has a large lay off in the area?

My employer direct-deposits my paycheck on the last day of the month.  

@Chad ReidlingerYou may want to look into opening as self-directed IRA that can be invested in real estate once you transfer the former employer 401k into it.

So you can technically operate as a sole proprietor in all of your businesses and not have to worry about converting passive income into active business income if you are flipping, because only the *intended* flips will be subject to self employment tax and ordinary income.

All rail service hubs on the downtown area, and suburb-to-suburb transit options are limited to those suburbs along the rails lines.Those properties near the stations have the best values.A key consideration, of course, is the location of centers of employment.