My recommendation for people starting out is to go to local REIA meetings, find out who the players are and ask if you can shadow them / work for free to learn.

I'm sure that there are a few big Players here on BP that has done that before, especially those that buy a LOT of inventory for their portfolios. 

The trick is finding an equalizer or something that allows you to compete with theses types of players.

The small mom and pop property management companies are getting acquired by several large national players these days (with large check books!) 

Bruce Norris was talking about the west coast MFR market and made the comment when he talks to the bigger players in this area.. and ask's would you buy your deals at what you could sell them for today.. it was a resounding NO.. so in my mind if you would not buy them today at what you can sell them for.. might be a good time to sell take profit and reposition somewhere else like this gentlemen is talking about. 

@Edward Burke What you are looking for is an Insurance Policy that replaces the Coinsurance clause with the Agreed Value clause.This policy gives you the ability to insure a building for less than the Replacement Cost, without being penalized for not insuring 100% of the Replacement Cost.Most companies do not offer this coverage, which is why your not getting great responses to your request.Also, if your calling the companies you list above, they are not players in the commercial Insurance space, and the agents don't have the ability to craft a policy to your needs.There are several insurance carriers that can do this. 

@Sean Trily Recently, there was a podcast episode about a former professional soccer player, who lives in Portland , Oregon but was able to find deals a few miles down on I-5 in Salem, Oregon.

They are the big players and until you have more of a presence or multiple properties, a website isn't needed.

Highly leveraged players will get knocked out first, large players with deep pockets will weather the storm and will start to acquire the excess supply.I had a very interesting conversation with a guy who's job it is to crunche numbers for REITs and pension funds - they will go all across the country for a solid 3% ROI.

The wholesaler is a key player on your team it sounds like.