You could find an experienced real estate investor in your area and talk your way into a maintenance/labour or assistants position with her/him and use the vantage point to observe and learn.  

So, my first question on this site (I've been an observer for quite a while).  

Just my observations.  

I'm by no means an expert, but I'm also searching for deals in Houston and have a few observations.

Again you could be making that observation due to a specific area that has low cap rates but I'm not sure. 

We felt fine about the interaction with the owner in evaluating going with Renters' Warehouse on the PM side, beyond just the observation that the offering seemed very formulaic and we did not 'buy' the value proposition (for the right price of course we may have bitten).During the one other experience we had with them, though - the service was poor, at best, but extremely dysfunctional. 

The author is somehow justifying "Bandit Sign" observations to a collapsing real estate market, that's ******** no matter how twisted you crank the numbers.There are some items in his commentary that have some merit.

An observation; You say he is 45 days with first payment and closing was 60 days ago.

Welcome @JoshuaI suggest you give the local REIA another shot if you just went to one meeting.Your observation that no one is willing to share information unless they get something out of it is a little premature.

I guess being long winded is that unless you live alone on a desert island, be observant of your surroundings and ask questions when you see things going on in front of you you don't understand.