Retirement home investments might be the better play.John,  as a REI you might want to brush up on your demographics.  

Must be located in the path of progress and demographically conducive to our target market. 

Just like Ben, I'm interested in knowing if you Wendell are satisfied with pay $15 per contact added to your db.I do like that Facebook gives you the option to target a potential customer base by location and demographics.

It's all personal preference, but I have a hard time believing that Extra Space, Public Storage, LifeStorage and their hundreds of millions of dollars on research and demographics aren't considering millennial's and their 'habits' while they are expanding and buying as much storage as they can.

How to know neighborhoods, demographic and market?

The location and demographics will be critically important, but in their successes it seems like a repositioned center will have as an anchor one of the following: major gym, movie theater, discount apparel store (TJ Maxx, Ross, DD's Discount), hobby store, general discount store (99c Store, Dollar General).

A passive or out of area investor has a very difficult time with this asset class and in my ever it to be humble opinion is simply not appropriate for those folks to invest in.Most of the top tier turn key companies that work major metro areas have really gotten away from the lowest end rentals.. as their clients suffer and really they suffer as well because management is so difficult with these its a loser big time for them on the management side as well.Its just simple logic the cheapest homes go to those who can afford the least in rent or are on subsidized rent .. that demographic in the US is highly unstable and transient by nature.. and the landlord takes the brunt of it. 

Please share reading material , getting started guides or books that might help.I am currently based out of the San Francisco Bay area and I am looking to invest within a 2-3 hour driving range.RegardsYour main goal is to understand the market (demographics, traffic volumes et cetra) and understand what makes a good deal (look at what has actually sold and at what price combined with building out a pro formas to understand it).  

The more furnishings provided, the more appeal to that demographic.

Personally, I would pick cities where I had trusted boots on the ground to do some scouting for me and then start analyzing deals using the Bigger Pockets Rental Properties Calculator to see where I would get the best returns, then handicap those returns using population and demographic trends - Basically I would find the best place to purchase buy and hold properties where I had someone I could trust on the ground.