Visiting HSV 4/25-4/29 for PM / agents / meet ups!

[Barb F.]

Greetings, BP family!

I'm a new investor based on of Virginia. I've been doing my reading and just started a meet-up (we didn't have any in my area). First meeting was a success!

This week (Thursday 4/25 through Sunday 4/28) I will be headed to Huntsville, my target market, to get a lay of the land and make some headway on putting together a team. I would like to use my time wisely down there. I'm hoping to meet with a few property managers, agents, local investors, and even contractors while I'm down there if I can manage it. I'm looking at single family homes and my budget is about 50k. I've seen discussion of PMs and realtors around HSV, but I'm hoping to specifically find folks who might be willing to work on what seems like this relatively smaller scale. Since I have 3.5 days (half of Thursday through all of Sunday), I would really like to connect with anyone who is a local investor down there, agents, PMs, or contractors to find a team that feels like the right fit.

I already have connected with one agent / property manager who came highly recommended by a new friend on the forums, so I already have one chat lined up. If you had 3 days in the city you wanted to invest in, while you were a newbie, what types of things would you be trying to do while you're here? What types of questions would you ask of the agents / PMs you talk to? Would you get a list of properties they manage? Would you ask them to take you to properties? I'm still finishing David Greene's Long Distance Real Estate Investing, so I have a chunk of that under my belt, but what other things would you recommend I look for with regards to people to work with as opposed to stay away from?

Separately, I have considered looking at deals via probate courts, because this seems like it's a way to find deals from motivated sellers that aren't on the market, compared to a more traditional real estate agent model. Is there anything I could or should be doing those few days I have boots on the ground if I want to look for deals with probate courts? 

Thanks so much in advance, all!

Sincerely,

Barb