While I always prefer to do deals with local, responsive agents.

You cannot blindly message individuals on BP advertising services.

Sounds interesting.Hi Leah, as you might imagine, most of the benefits focus on individuals and properties directly impacted by the disaster.

Hello, my name is Marshal, and I’m excited to connect with this community of like-minded individuals passionate about real estate.

While that may be good for the 10% pref investors, you may have been better off holding another year and getting another 7%.Related to this, I generally don't like preferred returns as a passive investor. 

I would echo this, it is a great REIA and the best place to find local, like-minded individuals and resources. 

I'm an independent agent here in AR and I write a lot of rental property, with ~6 preferred markets and if the properties have some issues, age, claim history etc.

For several reasons (property taxes, politics), I would prefer to begin real estate investing somewhere other than locally. 

They can't assess all the subjective data like overall layout, view from the living room window, the dogs next door that bark all day, the width of doorways, size of individual rooms, quality of kitchen cabinets and appliances, etc.The best thing to do is study your market regularly.

(We are working on a generalized survey to collect info on our buyers/potential buyers so we can make sure we understand who our customers are while trying to dial in their preferences and patterns.)You are doing great things.