A bit tough to sift through, and not much actual information on the law itself, but it looks like it may be far less definitive and immediate than I thought.

Sift through the comparable property pictures and see if somewhat-updated properties are renting for more money. 

The problem is he has no idea if any of them are worth anything and has now the impossible task of sifting through thousands of items, most of it probably trash, but how do you know without looking up each single one? 

You need to network like crazy, be active in your target market, doing deals, etc. and sifting through a lot of crap.I do this day in and day out.

This was after a ton of sifting through properties and being very very picky about what I would go for. 

I will sift through these and come back around.

C hoods fetch me $2500 rent for $140k. there's a bunch of crap deals too though, and in my experience, the variation from block to block requires that you have someone local who you trust to sift through the homes. nova/dc is probably one of the worst and most competitive areas I've seen.

@Christopher NemlichAside from all the great feedback, I agree that you need to sift through your options with some sort of system.I would connect with local sponsors, as mention by @Brian Burke.Then, I would connect with local brokers to ask for feedback on the buyers.

After sifting through all 18 pages, I've found your recommendations and that of others as well.

A newbie could sink real fast if they dont know how to sift through the wealth of knowledge this site does offer.