I'm looking for a more relaxed and informational group concentrating on how to do stuff from actual local experience, not stuff to buy to "help me" do stuff.  

Wilson,My take on it buy for cash flow and appreciation will happen...The problem is that there is no cash flow in the Bay Area deals.Therefore I concentrate mostly on out of state investments both SFH, and MF.Actually, in some out of state deals, you can capture appreciation upfront by just buying below the market...If you want to learn more about out of state investments check out this meet up:meetup.com/Los-Gatos-Real-Estate-Networking-Meetup/

Raleigh benefits from the Triangle's concentration of high-tech jobs which makes it a great investing area.

Some concentrate on refinancing, some are fix and flip lenders.

Think back to Nazi Germany when some people would hide Jews in the basement or hidden compartments in the house to prevent them from being shipped off to concentration camps."

Concentrate on location. 2.) 

Cliff Earle Contact me any time, My recent experience is exclusively in Dayton OH and I concentrate on zip code 45403.

This strategy does not work for REI unless you are a really big player and buying up large numbers of properties in a concentrated area. 

They are concentrated in the energy sector and 3.

Because they have high powered concentrated marketing efforts..