Phil, I would suggest either getting with one of these guys who say they're local and glean from their knowledge.

I've been lurking for about a year now on bigger pockets and, look forward to all the information I can glean as a member.

My point is that looking stuff up on the tax records with the goal of gleaning info that you think will increase your ability to negotiate with the seller is a waste of time.

I think we can glean a few points here:(1) definitely, as already mentioned, market to the folks next door.

Link here: http://www.facebook.com/orangecountyinvestorsclubAlso, despite being based in Newport Beach, my company invests only in Riverside County... so glean from that what you will.

Opinions are FREE.When I talk to developers or anyone else on my deals even if we don't do immediate business I listen and glean tons of excellent information for free.

Sure, it's fun to see how much more I'm worth today than yesterday, but in terms of operational metrics, it's just not meaningful.Perhaps that is important to you, Bryan, in which case I would agree that geometric mean of the increases should give you the information you are trying to glean in its most accurate form.

You can bet I'll be gleaning a ton of knowledge from many of you and it's in my nature to want to balance that equation out.So in keeping with the "not selling anything" mantra, here's what I've come up with.

I make up for the low deposit amount by screening out anyone with any type of criminal background, requiring a slightly higher credit score than my competition and a few other factors he said he had gleaned in his 30+ years of doing this.He also said (and I somewhat agree) that because tenants value their privacy that regular property inspections are seen as an intrusion and that frequent inspections will cause a tenant to not renew.

The information we glean off the internet, seminars/courses, books, trade shows and qualified legal counsel is all just a piece of being properly informed to conduct business in this day and age.