The way I’ve been approaching it is by underwriting markets the same way I underwrite individual deals — looking at taxes, rent-to-price relationships, tenant demand, and how forgiving the area feels if assumptions don’t play out perfectly. 

Builders staring down $6k-$11k extra per home from 35-50% tariffs on Canadian lumber (90% of supply), steel/aluminum/gypsum. Starts already stalled ~5% YoY; expect flips/renos +10-15% rehab costs, rents up to offset.
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There are a lot of variations to how to buy fixers profitably. 

Many tools rely on a single national database or applicant supplied info, which can miss records, lag behind court updates, or fail when data does not match perfectly.Why reports may come back with no hits:Most records originate at the county level first.Some courts do not update national systems regularly, if at all.Reporting laws require exact name and DOB matches, so slight variations get excluded.Automated systems cannot legally fill in gaps, they can only return what the database shows.Depending on state reporting laws, self reported records may be excluded if they fall outside what that state legally allows to be reported.Why self digging is high risk:Googling names, court sites, or social media steps outside a compliant screening process.Any information used in the decision making process must be accurate, verifiable, and consistently applied.If an applicant requests the consumer report used for the decision making and the answer is “I found it online,” that is not defensible and invites Fair Housing challenges.When verification happens inside a structured, repeatable process, many operators can move forward with confidence without doing extra digging.

There is usually some overlap between DSCR loan programs but a lot of variation because generally each DSCR loan provider has their own DSCR loan guidelines that they are using and underwriting to and guaranteeing the loan and borrower satisfy these guidelines to to sell these loans to investors.

Sometime I find myself being too optimistic to make it look better, rather than really playing more worst case scenario.  

Trenton, Camden corridor, and some of the smaller PA towns like Allentown or Reading have better cash flow but require more boots-on-ground due diligence.For the Jersey Shore STR play, I'd actually caution you to run the numbers very conservatively.

I have a renovation background, but I'm not really trying to play the value add game out the gate in markets I don't know.  

At this point I’m just building so the long term appreciation play is my key focus.

There's so much culture and variation between the neighborhoods that each is like its own area. 2 families are common, and the occasional 3-4 unit as well.