If you know of any local groups, events, or online communities where I could meet others who share this interest!

And when know what your doing and striking out on own is an option, you will have the knowledge of how-to vs following what random persons online randomly say. 

His negative reaction and aversion to wanting a neutral third party to play referee was a tip off to me to do more research and after paying $25USD for an online background check on the seller I discovered he had multiple judgements against him for business fraud even though the title to the property was clear.My personal lessons from my scammer were1.

Nobody I know of uses faxes any more whether hard copy or online.

I started doing some research and reading online forums, and it seems like my friend isn't alone.

It takes me less than an hour to file the protests online, ZERO dollars. 

I see a lot of ads when reseaching online that make it sound like my scenario is possible, but I've been skeptical.

Switching online services is unfortunately not an option because the large majority of house seekers use zillow.

It was definitely an eye opener especially because the pictures online showed a completely different picture of the state of the units.

Local municipalities and states have GIS data online that reveals much of how a property will be developed, even streams can be estimated (nothing like a photo of running water tho).