I've seen cap rate used as a metric for comparing different potential purchases apples-to-apples as you say, independent of the financing terms (which would affect COC but not cap rate, if I'm not mistaken).

Especially think comments like sharing first and "this is what I do" - very much an abundance mentality.Good idea about door hangars … I have door hangars aimed at Auc and PF, but have yet to find the time to accomplish this task so the metric of how well works is ... as expected not so good.I have done all the marketing about 2X/month since 10/2015.

One metric for determining the economic health of a metro area is inflation-adjusted median household income.

At each decision point, there are clear metrics, so you know you are making the right decision.

I hear great things about Cleveland, and Detroit has strong metrics for CFs, though I've heard some not so great things about the experience of a landlord in Detroit. 

For example, short-term works very well in vacation markets and can work in metro markets; medium-term works best in metro markets with hospitals; rent-by-room works best in markets with lots of young professionals or military.In our case, we wanted to use the rent-by-room strategy, so we selected Colorado Springs because of the young professional/military presence and because we could qualify for the houses.Then you will want to start analyzing properties in that market to ensure that you can hit the metrics you want, get connected with an agent (investor friendly) to start discussions about the market, and get connected with a lender to verify what you can be pre-approved for!

Therefore, a critical location selection metric is that rents and prices are rising faster than inflation.

Basically agree with @Scott M.What you could have done is negotiate performance incentives in the contract with them upfront.Typical performance metrics: Ave Rent AmountsRent CollectionsVacancyBe careful with Maintenance as too easy for incentives to tempt PMC to HIDE maintenance issues!

I've asked if they track demand per city, or any other metrics. 

I will discuss income reliability in another post.Location Selection RequirementsBelow are the location requirements we previously determined, along with the metrics.