How do you evaluate the city where you want to invest?

[Rada Vassileva]

I'm a newbie and still learning how to analyze/compare different areas. I have local lists of Absentee Owned Homes, Paid Off Mortgages, Recently Flipped Homes, etc. for every neighborhood in a particular city (I'm using census tract as a proxy for neighborhood) and I'm trying to figure out what to make of all this info.

What is the most relevant information about a city from real estate investment perspective?

[Darius Ogloza]

@Bonnie Rhodes  Agree and nothing beats actual time spent in the city.  It surprises me how many potential investors are willing to put up thousands of dollars to purchase properties but can't spare a plane ticket, a rental car and a week's Best Weestern bill getting to know the city they are putting their cash into.  In Rochester, watching newbies pay top dollar for properties on streets even hardened criminals avoided was like watching sheep going under the knife - so many completely unaware of what they were getting into and wholly impervious to good advice.