I'm looking in Brenham and College Station, although it seems CS is way more competitive and I think will stagnate when A&M caps student population.

We invest in Kansas City, MO due to the low taxes, great rental market, great job market and growing population!  

Gratefully I had a few markets to choose from and it narrowed down my search from "everywhere in the US" to a few markets.One thing I forgot to mention is I'm also looking only at metro areas with 250k+ population, so typically no tertiary markets.Ah, I like that metric.

There is less competition in both and I know nothing about Hawaii except that it is probably diverse and growing in population.  

Every city official is going to say they're going to go up in population / rental demand / etc. 2nd: Why are you looking at cashflow per door on a commercial deal? 

Wyoming is a large sparsely populated state so set up some keyword alerts to let you know when anyone anywhere near you posts about the area.

I am making an uneducated assumption that because Bakersfield is a smaller population that somehow the process will be cheaper and faster... easier?

The market in Denver is changing (as it is everywhere, I'm guessing) and the particulars of the job market, housing availability, and population fluxes makes for unique and dynamic circumstances.

Things to consider are neighborhood classes (A, B, C, D) school district rating, crime, employment, population, and amenities such as nearby conveniences. 

The economy should be diverse and have a growing population.