He was life flighted to the SF bay area where there is a hyperbaric O2 chamber-- with a huge bill.

Off the top of my head I can think of regional economic trends, population movement, metro and state tax rates, Chamber of Commerce economic forecasts.

Visit their chamber of commerce website and look for towns announcing new employers coming to town. 

Heather Chambers with Washington Federal is a portfolio lender.  

@Johann Kleisch I use Tasha Chambers with Chambers, LLC. 

Scott you're  in Maine and I would go to a major city in Maine like Portland  and then go to the Chamber of Commerce and talk to the Chamber president that you need a good mortgage broker for residential loansThat I would use the chamber president's name and call the Mortg broker up and taking him her to lunchWith Dodd  Frank a lot of mortgage brokers are worried about lease options so you need to reassure them that you're just trying to get an idea of present borrowing ability if they have the down payment, check DTI if everything else is okayF ICO is changing to include people with no credit such as paying their phone bill on time, their rent on time, etcI would write out a written agreement with the broker saying that if the mortgage broker gives a written opinion on a possible borrower they will be compensated a fee for their time and they will be able to originate a home loan and get a commission when the time comesThis is not easy and it may pay for you to get your mortgage brokers license in Maine so that you can do a minor origination on all your time buyers if you're doing a lot of them

Depending on your plans and financial position, you might want to build out a "general" network through attending local Chamber Networking events in addition to the RE events.They can broaden your reach and may offer you a path to generate some traditional income while your build momentum in your real estate business: www.thechamberlink.com is a great clearing house for all the local chamber events you can attend based on your criteria.

You can also reach out to the local Chamber of Commerce and request information regarding job number and population growth or decline.

I have also heard that the area around by the City Center (used to be Aurora Mall back in the day, Chambers/Mississippi and 225) is really growing like crazy.

@Glen Erickson agreed, I already have a real estate attorney on hand and have experience with properly limiting liability (since I own an unrelated business) so I will definitely be setting this up the correct way to avoid issues.I've already been actively searching for mentors in the area and have connected with one, so that is nice, and I am going to be networking with bank contacts in my local Chamber to try and get leads on REO deals, since the MLS is going to be properties that everyone and their mom is bidding on.