This is a great bunch of people with a wide diversity of knowledge and skills!

AVM's therefore tend to be very good in large subdivisions of homogenous homes with regular sales activity, and get increasingly bad as surrounding homes get more diverse, or there are fewer sales on which to base the estimate.On the debt side, each loan made against a property is public record, including the loan amount, and often, the basic terms of the loan are available as well.

I look for multiple suppliers of employment, industries, government, the average median income, cost of living to rent per unit, demographics and the momentum in demographics in that market given the culture, jobs, and lifestyle etc.

It's kind of shocking to ride through what used to be some of the rougher parts of the city and see such a diversity of people living there now.

They have a ton information about different strategies from a huge diversity of people.

The training and culture at most national houses is geared nearly 100% towards retail sales.

What I can tell you is overall it is a solid market both by characteristics that are important to me in evaluating markets (strong economic growith / momentum for the city, diversity of business, high amount of renters, low property taxes compared to purchase price, solid neighborhoods with tenant quality etc) as well as it is a market that I believe over time the long term will have small but steady price appreciation.  

Diversity is the (not so) secret to reliable income from investments.

I have been listening to the podcasts and browsing the site for a month or so and am impressed with level of knowledge and the culture of the community here on BP.Being from north of the border I do get jealous when I hear some of the prices available in some markets of the U.S. but I do keep reminding myself to be happy with the raging economy and 1% vacancies of my home town in Edmonton.

FYI,  my parents are old school 1st gen immigrants who typically do things the hard way due to ignorance, language barrier, and cultural differences.