Just being active and visible in the areas you want to buy in can work wonders.

I have yet to come across a policy that covered for fraud or illegal activities. 

REITS and stocks are passive and real estate is active. 

It's great to hear from someone active in the Rochester market.

I'm from Leesburg, an active-duty Air Force member, too (retiring soon).

It's not illegal provided you're dislosing it to all parties and not trying to actively hid it.

We have 3 boys who are actively in sports and the location of the house just doesn't work out for us. 

Because with an HOA in tow that means your not doing it alone, you have active "partners" who will be taking care of a slew of things so think of it like training wheels. 

I spent a decade in advertising, before founding and running a custom wood shop for another decade, so 'm pretty good at the self-promotion.I agree with you that the more gorilla approach would be most effective and that's actually what i've been doing – calling RE agents in my service area with active listings, introducing myself to property managers and leasing agents...To answer your question, I will have to handle the work myself for 6-12 months to build out the SOPs and field service management systems, but I have a lot of relationships for those looking to "do the work".I'll check out the meet up and would love to grab a cup of coffee, I'll shoot you an email.

I'll try to be more active on here :)