Local meetup groups are a great way to meet the players in your area. 

Unless you are one of the big players it is not very useful, you may get a feel of the direction of general market that is about it.

My advice would be to attend some local REI meetups and see who the big time players are in the area and say you are a contractor looking to do some work in exchange for mentoring on the investment side of things.As for the Buffalo market, there has been a lot of government-backed reinvestment into the city in recent years so it's doing well but there are still no jobs here so the rent/prices cannot continue to rise.

Over the last 2 yrs. it has gotten easier and easier for Mortgage Brokers to take deals away from banks.Kinda feels like being Michael Jordan, back in his prime, walking onto a basketball court with a bunch of junior high school players and having the ability to completely dominate!

It’s a totally different game with different players.

We’re working on 3 Opportunities right now that came to us “off market “.The brokers brought these opportunities to us because they knew/know we’re real players in the space and can/will close.Commercial brokers, & our trusted relationships with them, have been really valuable.Dino

I would put in a TV with either Netflix or cable and possibly a DVD player (especially if you have one that you don't use)

You can use google to quickly figure out who the major players are. 

Just make sure your players are in place and not swamped with work like many are now days, lots of folks having trouble getting decent labor.

@Jay Roque Banks look at a variety of things with Fix & Flips.