In the past 5 years a developer has bought a plumbing supply store, an old office supply store and some other buildings that have absolutely no character.

It’s like going into the department store looking for something specific and the salesperson says “can I help you?”

It is like a grocery store owner falling in love with a certain load of groceries and refusing to sell them.

Another thing I think would be just as successful would be to setup a relationship with a local furniture store where the buyers could go and spend $10-$15K on furnishings as part of the price of the house.

That would be everyone I meet in the grocery, drug store, at Little League, Lions Club, Boy Scouts, PTA, church, the newspaper delivery boy, the postman, the UPS driver and even people sitting at nearby booths at Denny's.Naturally I will tell them ONLY THE TRUTH about how I feel I was treated and with any luck and persistence we may see if TRUTH and WORD OF MOUTH can overcome paid advertising.signed EOCNOTE, I'm not saying YOU should do this.

Just yesterday, I was at the hardware store.

After all, you are an agent of the owner, not an independent store owner.

I would recommend first reading The Ultimate Beginner's Guide I know you are not beginners but there's something in there for just about everyone.http://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investingSecond, go the the BP Store and buy the two books by J Scott, The Book on Flipping Houses and The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs.

They charge a $40 flat fee to assess the situation, then go to the hardware store, buy supplies, and fix the problem that day charging a per hour rate plus the actual cost of supplies.

While neither are specific to one MSA/location, and each have a bit of extra stuff in them (ITB includes a bit of home DIY store stocks), they should be directionally correct in case of a big downturn.