So my humble advice to you is if you are having trouble finding amazing deals...Ideally, get a website, make love to SEO, spank it, .. don't be nice and gentle.. ask it "Who is your daddy". 

As such, those people trying to sell their homes are not seeing any movement at the pre-news prices. 

I don't know much about the mining or medical industry and how turnover/movement works.

I was thinking maybe I could sell the lead to a local real estate investor (I understand this would be a bird dog thing which some might frown on).This has the potential for a wholesale deal (i think, be gentle Im still reading real estate books) because the house is in disrepair, needs roof work, foundation work, windows aren't painted, house has water leakage issues, and a lot of other issues which we have intimate knowledge of since my mother has lived in the house for four years.

All,I'm new to the game, so be gentle :)What are your go to sites to find properties?

If there is already a bad taste in people's mouths you are going to educate them gently.

Having some equity cushion gives you some protection.IMHO, you need three factors for a rental property to be a good deal:1) cash flow, per the evaluation we all discuss and debate2) equity, at least enough to cover your costs and to protect against some downward movement.3) demand, if you can't fill the units, its not a deal at any price.Two out of three is not good enough.

I have a lot of freedom of movement at this stage in my life, so I want to choose a place that I will LOVE and that will allow me to carry out my goals in real estate.Thanks,Harry

I’m intrigued by the recent movement in short term rental arbitrage, both from a landlord perspective (marketing and renting to folks looking to conduct short term rental arbitrage) and from an arbiter perspective.

I don't have any idea of what I should be looking at to predict the market, though it looks like the gobbling up of foreclosures is the movement towards the equilibrium, and inflows into the system, clearing up a lot of the bad debt.