It especially helps that my local competitors have NNN setup.  

Competitor research + give you a plan: Same thing as above.

Just go in the hottest market for sales and you have a better chance of being a competitor.  

Competitors accept those as well. 

[Snip]  Unless required by law or legislative process, nothing contained in this Letter Agreement or resulting from any financial or other advice provided by LFC may be disclosed to any competitor of LFC, or to any client or potential client of LFC, or to any other party (with the exception of representatives from HUD and authorized third party contractors) in any manner without LFC's prior written approval.

The FBI and DOJ have been aggressively pursuing cases both against folks who should have known better, and also against some who just got caught up in it through others.Avoiding it is really simple. 1) Always bid to your number, 2) Don't partner on a deal just to get a better price (though I think real, long term partnerships, even with past competitors, should be fine).Trying to scare away newbies by bidding them up is fair game as far as I'm concerned.

They seem to be a pretty close competitor to Cozy.

Think marketing as a landlord - - what will draw more & better tenants to me over my competitors? 

We are competitors in Atlanta.Sorry, no idea!

You might try advertising via Adwords to gmail users who are discussing home sales, or who mention your competitors in their email conversations.