HI - I’ve always found “best markets” discussions a little unsatisfying.It often feels like people are talking past each other — appreciation vs cash flow vs risk tolerance — and the answer is always some version of “it depends,” which is true, but not very actionable.Over time, I’ve come to think part of the problem is that we often mix deal analysis and market selection into the same conversation.For myself, I started trying to separate the two:Market selection: Which cities even belong in the conversation?

What is everyone using to track their selections and budgets.

If you have at least 250 hours (total hours, between all your properties in all your entities) for the year, you can take advantage of IRS Section 199A safe harbor rules and simply lop 20% off your net income from rentals from your taxable income.

Had we seen one of them, we would have selected another tenant and avoided a disaster where he is not paying and we are going through appeals and eviction.Even the income reported by Zillow turns out they report what the tenant submitting the application provides - not a value that Zillow verifies. 

All that does is generate potentially bad deals due to forced strategies and limit the number of opportunities you can take advantage of. 

This is a solid way to achieve diversification and take advantage of the tax to scale your RE portfolio.

If you had a competitive advantage with XYZ to get through the "front loaded operations" could be huge.

The big advantage for smaller portfolios is cost - if you're doing 3-5 properties, the traditional firms add up quickly.

Baltimore county has the advantage over the city for taxes.  

Is anyone who is using Advantage Property Management (Memphis metro) familiar with whether it up-charges/marks up their contractor invoices for (non-rehab) typical maintenance, cleaning, and repairs?