Invest in the area they grew up in, so they have a strong familiarity with neighborhoods, trends, and possibly have family in the area to help2.

There is no Fannie/Freddie that everyone trends towards in the HELOC world; you can call 5 places and get 5 drastically different answers.

I posted a similar but more comprehensive link in the Alabama forum.  http://media.floridarealtors.org/market-data/

Maybe we need to study Japanese real estate trends to get a glimpse of where we are heading?

Part of DD is the market trend in that neighborhood for apartments.

This is not just a temporary trend.

I also like to see which direction sales are going and check back as far as a year, then 6 months, then 3 months, then 1 month to see how prices and volume are trending.

. #4 NO paperwork or documentation#5 Not understanding the rental trends in their area (ie saying they will raise rents when the market cant handle the increase)  which increases unneeded vacancy expense. 

However, the stock market's trend as of today (Thursday Nov 10) here in Asia indicates that most investors are now hopeful that his "business man" skill set will start adding positive effects to the US economy and the world overall...  

Also consider is this NYC location trending up in a big way long run?