What you need to do is speak with a good estate planning attorney who can adequately structure the asset protection features you need.

We do plan on re-implementing this feature in the not-too distant future.

I think it's an interesting extra feature, and it may make a company using it look a little more professional, but I'm not sure if it's 'industry changing' either.I'm playing with some things like Instant Messaging bots, and Twitter, as extra ways for people to be able to access information - so far I think it's still in the early adopter range.

Thomas - One of the reasons that we built the Groups feature into BP is that folks are getting tired of that kind of nonsense at their local clubs (amongst other things).Why don't you create a group for Austin, TX investors here on BP, and then you can just plan your own local meetups without the pitches/etc. ?

If you have not found your way all around our site, you may want to take a few minutes to check out the Groups feature in addition to the forums.

If you're just doing a directory type service I think your best model may be to offer free basic listings to build up content and traffic from tenants, then charge for extra stuff like 'featured listing', and photographs in the listing, etc.

Or does google have some other geographically targeted feature?

By combining blogging on BiggerPockets with the other social networking features of our site, you'll quickly build your colleagues and improve your business!

I use the mail merge feature on Click2mail.com.

My opinion is not to throw away a lead that could be a good deal, especially when you're starting out.Short sale is the way to go in these cases, but you want to ensure that you're signing up properties that have a good chance of getting a deep discount from the lender.Such properties are those that have volatile features that can be pointed out and negotiated/overestimated by the lender.