Now there are 2,000 more jobs in that town and competition for homes became fierce. 

Noboby wants to move around the holidays and incentives or not , the unit may stay vacant unit February.I try and tell my tenant that getting out of the lease during the holiday is not an option.Marcwww.greenfieldent.compurchasing without competition

When I lived in Houston there was an outfit, West End Lumber that was a (tiny) bit more competitive than even the best contractor supply houses.

The sky is the limit after that, it depends on your market as to what you need to build to make your product competitive.

And a large part of the competitive advantage (in my view) in small scale rentals is the management you can add (so you would be reliant on another for that and there could be agency costs)...It is that extra tenant service, faster response time, or cleaner rental that may give you the returns....What is your edge from a thousand miles away without much time to add? 

They are either afraid of this concept because they lack understanding, or they don't want competition. 

Indy is a terrific city for REI, but it has grown far more competitive for investor deals. 

Because remodels are less risky, there's more competition.

But you were smarter than "the crowd" and quickly paid down debt on your LOC to $550K, still had positive cash flow despite having to lower your rents because unlike the guy with a mortgage, you had options, a competitive advantage in the market because you could always just press the pause button by making the interest only payment until the storm passed.

If the listing agent has choked off all competition already, then just throw something at the seller.