No matter in stock market or housing market, you specialize in a narrow sector and that will increase your profit. Like in housing market, you focus on certain price range, certain types of housing, like for me, I focus on slightly less than median price level price, like 350K to 400K, and I focus on townhouses, and then I focus on one close by regions, get no more thant 200 miles away. By focusing, I don’t have to deal with differences in landlord/tenant laws, I will get very familiar with this county, the court procedure, the MLS listing procedure and etc. Right now, I pretty much need no help from real estate agent to handle any of my rentals. You get focused, then you will find market inefficiency and prosper from it. More example, I focus on DC metro, especially the rich counties like Montgomery and Fairfax, I read all kinds of free government analysis and development trend report, zoning trend and migration trend, then I will understand that my market is still long-term under valued in terms of housing cost.

The same focus can be applied to stock market.