Have them scour zoning maps of the area you're looking into and have them check renting websites (Zillow,Craig's list).

I have lots of books under my belt already and I scour the internet every day.Basically I am just asking some of you seasoned vets, what would you do in my situation.

In May '08 I found a great brick duplex in high-end neighborhood inside the city by scouring websites.

When that didn’t work we scoured the market for houses at below-market value but found none.

Part of my getting started has been first to become educated to the investment techniques, setting up my home office, scouring the forums, joined REI club, assembling a buyer's list, reading a ton of books, etc.

I'm going to try and get to my local REI meeting, they have a "first time visitors pass, 2 meetings@$20 each" I've just been scouring the area looking for property that looks distressed, taking down the address and coming home to research it.

If investing in St Louis again, Webster Groves would be at the top of list for places to consider scouring for a buy and hold.So would you buy either property again, knowing what you know now?

You can scour property and court records, send out direct mail advertisements, advertise online, put up bandit signs, or just drive for dollars and look for abandoned homes.

I scour the market and have never found a duplex I would own for that price, so unless you got it off the MLS I might be concerned about the area.

Scouring CL may be the crumbs for hedge fund wannabes.