Any observations as to the change of environment in the area since four years ago?

That is an excellent observation, Mike, and that is extremely true.

Yes, as some of you observed this project was a big too big for the first one.

Your suggested plan of observation was what I had in mind, though my target county does their auction over the internet.

Without the details, it will be hard to point the areas of concern but here are my observations:1. 

Hmmmmm...Pieces were starting to come together for me, only because I was curious and observant.

Create a target area (zip code, radius whatever)Create a min/max value for houses (example 1k-2k rents, 75k- 250k).Then find prop managers in the area and see if they have listings etc in the area... to verify YOUR numbers.The more you observe an area the more you see trends, you see the ads stay up/get taken down.... you can tell what's a good deal or bad deal. 

However, there seems to have been a very large drop starting at the end of last year, that I have personally and anecdotally observed but I'm not alone.

I would like to get some observations on this.

To answer the question...in my city of Cincinnati this is what I observed across different markets is the following:A - 4-5 capB - 5-6 capC - 6-7 capD - 7-10 capF - 10-12+ capAnd I think...with the Millennials being the largest demographic group and wanting to rent more than buy, we will see cap rates go down even further.So, I am still buying but I focus on value-adds where I can raise the rents significantly.To me, it's no longer buy to get yield play (because the yield is just low) and it's now...buy, increase the rents, increase the value then sell (or refi).