Hopefully they'll be able to attract some larger companies to the area.  

Welcome to a breath of fresh air. 

Also drive around yourself looking for distressed, vacant, for-sale-by-owner and for rent.Put out ads, signs and mailers to attract motivated sellers and pre-foreclosures (get Notice of Default list at county, A.K.A.

The art of wholesaling is to get the properties under contract at a price that is attractive to investors.

It's gets old hearing comments from people with doom and gloom about retail that do not live it and breathe it day to day.Online IS NOT,IS NOT killing brick and mortar retail.Online sales used to be about 2% of all sales many years ago.

All of the cities have growing populations, growing median incomes, and are attracting / already have attracted talent across Important industries (i.e. tech among others). 

In the short term it might look attractive to make the quick buck by "pulling a fast one", but for the long term you don't want to set your reputation in your local real estate investing community as the guy who is screwing people over by lying to them to get what you want. 

Now flip side I had a good portion that stayed for years.. but those were the minority and the others simply did not make up for it.Also I know where the attraction to Sec 8 is.. its the thought of guaranteed rent.. folks in those markets know that market renters are really tough.. so they take the lessor of two evils. 

I've grown a bit weary of traditional stock market investing (story for another day) and have found myself attracted to all of the long-term benefits of real estate, not to mention the hands-on nature.

The lot is very attractive but the home is in total disrepair.