My contact info should appear down below in my signature block, provided you're not using the phone app.

Hi, I checkout two one bedroom with same price.1) Next to the mall ( with Costco and others supermarkets and fast food restaurants, with door man) but about 700 sq.2) about 5 block away from the mall described above, the closest supermarket is 4 block away about 10 minutes walk( I don't drive) , but 950 Sq, with 9 feet ceiling.

Often times, a leaky faucet or drain pipe just needs some minor adjusting.

This puts up a big road block. 

@Joel Unick, it's 5-6 blocks west of Drake University right near University.Des Moines is small, so if you commit to watching the active, pending, and sales data from zillow or realtor dot com, you will be able to see the areas that are turning.Also if you find a realtor that will share with you the trends and data for the area (I'm happy to do this for you, just let me know) you can find how many cash buyers in different areas of the city. 

I keep hearing that Baltimore may be a good investment area and that it is a block by block assessment.

As far as that goes it now becomes very much a block by block scenario that's nearly impossible to know unless you're intimately familiar with the area and many parts of the city are changing very fast due to the amount of investors that are rehabbing so that answer changes constantly as well

How is it legal for states to block evictions, yet require payment of property taxes? 

@Fady HabibI would say it has different blocks that range from B to C+.

I would suggest googling Block Real Estate Market Report - they put out a decent report on all ways to invest in KC and a snap shot of the economy at large that while targeted to commercial investing, helps the single family investor.You can also go to KCRAR.org the local realtor board to get market data.Houses and small multi family is hard to come by, a good deal has 10 offers and sells in 24 hours.Contractors are also hard to come by, the good ones are 3 to 4 months out unless you know a guy.And personally, I would avoid Kansas City Missouri because the KC Tenants  (that's an organization) are waging war on the Housing provider, chaining themslves to courthouse doors or photo ops, and getting restrictive laws passed.