If I ever did spend several minutes of my usually way too short time reading ANY of this genre of "Top whatever # of cities (or states, countries, etc) that are good/bad/declining/rising" that often pop up, I wouldn't admit that I'd foolishly wasted my time like that!

You (not so politely) declined.  

We know that when it comes to real estate investing that it is probably unwise to overpay for a property in a declining area that has negative cash flow.

Ours happens to state if a partner wants to sell, he must first offer to the LLC, then to the partners together, then to each partner separately if one declines, then to the public.

Most are old and they don't seem to make them new anymore in many cities which tells me they aren't in demand, so I can't advocate for building a strategy around an asset in decline.

You can always use a stated income loan if your DTI is out of wack and a conventional bank declines the fileThere are options for sure!

Not that I've ever done it...but I've bought from wholesalers and declined about a hundred times as many deals as I've bought because they weren't good enough for one reason or another (usually insufficient rehab allowance or over-optimistic ARV projection).Now, on to your question. 

Needless to say, I declined the application.

.❌ Both state and metro populations are increasing - Memphis population declined by 1.7% between 2017 and 2022.

do you have any concern that revenues could be declining due to increasing local competition and renters preference/ability to travel elsewhere post-pandemic?