While you're reading, watching videos, talking to people online etc always have some way of taking notes.

Now let's say one or both people making the purchase owned a condo previously where they roll over the proceeds/equity into the new purchase and put 40% down.

Also--similar to apps like Facebook and Twitter--I can almost guarantee that a larger pool of people would seamlessly utilize their phones to vote/like and comment on the forums. 

Meetup and eventbrite seem to be the other platforms that people post them in.

This is one area where it helps tremendously to have per-existing relationships with people in the industry such as family or friends.

Here are additional comments:1) Buying out of state removes any local knowledge you have from assisting in your success, including knowing areas, people and costs. - We always recommend buying your first rental locally if possible and DIY managing to learn as much as possible before investing OOS.2) Lots of crooks and incompetents in the PMC world:( They both cost you money.- As already stated, you'll have a small portfolio.

Social engineering is everywhere, and some people are really good at making you believe what they want you to believe.

Generally larger commercial properties and shopping centers are easier to classify with hard and fast rules, but to the points above the residential areas really move very quickly and have way more nuance than most people care to admit.zip codes are generally way too large for my liking at least in my market to provide any kind of insights other than macro level economics but even then highways or rivers that cut through a zip code can end up with totally different trade areas.we can get pretty granular with cellphone data and with grocery center data to understand the trade areas and their true boundaries, but that kind of data pull is generally only cost effective for investors doing larger scale projects or developments, and honestly we still just end up getting on the ground and feeling it out, so I generally tell people that the money is better spent on a plane ticket and weekend trip in the area you are looking rather than any kind of "trade area" level data studies.and generally B class in 1 area means something different than another. 

People move, people get busy, people have remorse, people get new SPOUSES, and very very rare is the X that is 100% cooperative and willing to sign anything that gets put in front of them. 

It is big but I am hearing now people want dishwashers and w/d in units.