If the legal description of that property (and the adjacent ones) indicates that it "binds upon" that old county road, the owner likely owns to the middle of that road.

If rent prices have been going up and vacancies down, that may be an indicator of a sellers-market making finding good tenants easier.The data is a little raw (especially for census data), so if you have any trouble feel free to message me and I'll try to help you out!

Other than absentee owners, are there any indicators I should look for when determining if I should attempt to contact the owner?

If I receive an off market offer I take that as an indication there is demand for my property and I go to 2-3 brokers for BOV's and my lender to compare sale vs refi. 

@Steven Birch - the 1% or 2% rule isn't any indication of how good or bad an investment is. 

Hey Everyone,I am in process of determining my shortlist of markets to enter and one metric/indicator that continues to give me heart burn is finding a reliable source of Cap rates for smaller markets that interest me.

It may indicate that such CPA is new and does not have enough clients or that he does not value his time.

Most of the time it's inflated numbers to indice a buyer to believe they are getting a spectacular deal.

Hey Everyone,Newbie here working on getting my first commercial multi-family deal, and I have 2 questions regarding market analysis.I am in process of determining my shortlist of markets to enter based on the below metrics/indicators as they all seem to be reliably available online:% Population Growth% Job Growth% Income Growth% Home Value% Decrease in Crime% VacanciesAlso considering, travel time to the location and my general interest in the area.1) Is there anything else I should consider or omit?

In fact, some banks have stopped providing HELOCs so I took that as an indicator.