I already know that a change in zoning can directly impact the value of a property, but I'm looking for more than personal knowledge.BACKGROUND: I have a client involved in a zoning dispute with Planning and Zoning.The property was approved for commercial use 15 years ago, so the owner built some storage units on part of the land.

@Joseph Miguel What I posted is directly FROM Oakland's rent control page.

There are a ton of people on these forums willing to give advice and point you in the right direction :) are you planning to invest locally or out of state? 

I’m just looking for some general advice from people who have experience and who could direct me to the right people to speak to.

I'm going to send you a direct message.

., loan requirements) which directly affects the amount of capital received from the bank?

The two simple methods are 1- Direct Mail2- MLSFrom there 3- warm call all of the homes for rent.

Also, you don't have analysis paralysis, you are only 18 and you just don't know enough yet to have the confidence to know which direction to go in.Go to real estate meetups every month for a year.

The most important factors a hard money lender will look at, if you don't have experience, is your liquidity and credit score & history (as well as your background -- no liens, judgements, foreclosures, bankruptcies, etc).I would hit up @Michael Cid -- he's a tremendous resource and is a direct lender. 

My current plan is to generate lists using PropStream, skip trace them, and upload them into our CRM (Resimpli), which we’ll use to execute direct mail and cold calling campaigns.