What are the key components you study/look for (rent prices, trends, etc.)?

Pretty interesting article on how accounting tricks have created funny money in tech hubs like San Francisco and Seattle that have inflated the real estate markets:https://www.redfin.com/blog/2017/09/when-even-tech...Both as a real estate investor and as a career software engineer who has worked at a tech startup in Oklahoma City for the last ten years, I have been deeply involved in this trend.  

If you are buy and hold til you die then we must look at long term demographic, economic and other trends and how it might affect our markets.

and freshen up the trim.No reason your's can't be the trend setter and get the most rent.. 

From what I can tell my towns economy is growing fast, which makes me want to get into the game now before it hits its peak and then trends downward.

Thanks Anthony, but aren't their historical trend requirements that need the investor to have been making that sort of money for more than 2 years? 

In 2018, we plan to enter mfh  and the numbers appear to match that same trend. 100% occupancy for mfh is a norm for the area and with A and M new campus and downtown renovation, you can bet the area is a good place.

Here is the information on trends in the real estate industry.

A few things to add to it:While there certainly is a trend of working from home or telecommuting, I do not foresee brick and mortar offices going away.

Recapitalizing is a challenge so people sell reperformers or, a new trend, partials.