Sold comps should carry the most weight.

I found it helpful to look at markets across multiple tradeoffs instead of treating any single metric as decisive.As a simple illustration, consider two geographically close Midwest markets — Cincinnati and Columbus — not to declare a winner, but to show how different lenses highlight different strengths.Common heuristics investors tend to reference:Cincinnati: lower median home price, lower typical rent, often meets the 1% rule, moderate historical appreciation.Columbus: higher median home price, higher typical rent, rarely meets the 1% rule, stronger historical appreciation.These signals are useful for understanding entry price and basic cash-flow potential.Signals that surface broader tradeoffs:Cincinnati: higher rent-to-income pressure, more concentrated employment base, slower liquidity (days on market and inventory), lower structural friction.Columbus: more resilient rent-to-income, more diversified employment base, faster liquidity, moderate structural friction.This second view doesn’t predict outcomes or replace deal analysis — it helps explain why similar-looking markets behave differently under stress, growth, or different strategies.All of this is relative, not absolute, and weighting depends entirely on goals (cash flow, appreciation, balance, risk tolerance).

However, the context you just provided suggests this is simply a case of your tenant weighting her options, at your cost.

Just some food for thought.Have you thought about just taking over an old one story motel where everything is in one structure, (or building something like that) because (it seems like) the upkeep on the individual structures and the building costs for the individual structures (might be) more than one structure.Just my 2 cents.

I have rented whole houses here in Brooklyn since 2008 so I prefer to go for a multi-family (2-3) as I have no problems with maintenance/upkeep, dealing with tenants , etc.  

Properties that support themselves reduce pressure and let you reinvest from a position of strength.Higher appreciation markets can make sense later, once your base is stable and you’re less dependent on each deal carrying its own weight.

I use them a lot for my event rental business, primarily for sub-flooring projects, concrete mix for tent weights, etc.For the next few months, I'll be looking to furnish the units, maybe some travel to and from (it's an out of state investment), hotels, meals, etc.

If I were starting over I would do exactly what you were doing but also I would put a lot more weight into finding an investor friendly realtor - I looked for a few weeks, and found a few but they never really responded to me or had the time to walk me through how the process should be done.

It always seems that someone is not carrying their weight.

Again, the details will matter, but you should have no problem sustaining the income and upkeep solely from rents.