Nobody plans or wants to move in the winter so I expect prices to relax a little more. 

You are an engineer and probably have a good income so you have less worry about getting hurt financially due to a bad investment but for me my focus has gone from out of state(my area is pricey) to investing at home using a technique that utilizes house hacking with an FHA 203 loan so I don't have to put much of my own money down.

For every 2 hours of real information, there was about 1.5 hours of "pitch", "motivation", or "hypnotic stage induction" techniques designed to get the attendee to "sign on the line that is dotted".

@Mike Duran thank you for the input, it is indeed very helpful and I'm thinking about this technique now.

Upon inspection it was evident that the property was a flip implementing incredibly poor construction techniques and materials.  

BRRRR is a technique, but is not required to continue to  build your portfolio.

So I guess my question is what are some simple techniques that are being used to evaluate a potential market and submarket?

@Jonathan Gardner well, this is certainly a different technique.  

@Jeffrey Guarino so the technique you are using to value the property isn't how most DSCR loans work.  

I feel very strongly about that technique because it has been so lucrative for me.