In many parts of the country this is a sellers market. 

@Cosette Trantow Assuming that AZ MLS is roughly the same as MA/ME MLS, I can tell you that an actual MLS feed is not only more accurate than using data-scrapers like Zillow and Trulia, but you'll get listings about a day faster.In a very hot market like we have here in eastern MA, that 1 day jump might make the difference between getting an offer in ahead of the crowd and competing with the crowd.Our system will email our clients within 15 minutes of a new listing hitting the market. 

In many parts of the country there is no choice as city sewer is unavailable.

I see people investing in real estate half way across the country.

Texas is home to Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio, 4 cities that happened part of the top 10 largest metro areas in the country. 

@Jessica WoodNo I haven’t , I know jay henrichs who responded above does new builds in various parts of the country .

And the big facilities the portfolio lenders have which is dominated by hedge fund investing.there are though some outlets that allow non accredited note investors to buy PERFORMING commercial NOTES>. as well as you can buy all sorts of NPN all over the country that are usually Owner occ.Now one of the reasons is there are MORE owner occ than commercial.. so the Guru's who a talked about here Scott Carson etc and his students who are well represented on BP.. this is the space they know and talk about.. 

I don't have any helpful hints from the investing perspective, but I can give personal feedback as an RN that traveled for nearly 7 years all across the country.

For most of the country lower oil and gas prices are a benefit but for producing regions like Texas this is going to create a downturn.  

Except it's not random... it's based on Government studies of rentals across the entire country.