He said using answering services helped sift through the pointless calls and the actual leads. 

Investing locally or out-of-state, they both have pros and cons....just have to learn what they are in order to be able to start sifting through it all.

I have to sift through a LOT of crap to find some good nuggets -- and keep going back to the site to check on properties that have been on the market for awhile, staying in touch with the brokers until the Sellers are finally willing to make a deal to then make it a good investment opportunity.What other tools are investors on BP using to find commercial deals (I also reach out to brokers on Loopnet and tell them what i'm looking for -- but often times, i feel many brokers just go to their preferred investors once a deal pops up and the deal doesn't even make it on the listing sites) Residential seems slightly easier to find deals not on listing services... but my interest and experience is on the commercial side.  

Hey BP,I am posting this question in the hopes of being directed to some external websites or other forum posts that I can sift through to better understand not only what the Arizona landlord/tenant bylaws are, but also what differentiates Arizona from other states. 

But from my experience sifting through forums - some viable options for RE investing seemed to be within: Inglewood, Hawthorne, Arts District, Eagle Rock, Highland Park, etc.

Let's say you have this list in front of you, and you are about to sift through it. 

It takes some time sifting through the weeds but copy and paste makes it easy to reply with "...

It takes a lot of time to get your license (75 hours) and to sift through the MLS for good deals, often for an investor that time is better spent doing other things.

You can take an alternative slower route and search through the government published data online (tax records and etc, but it will take you some time to sift through that).

However, usually the $3900 option fee that we charge upfront (which is not a down payment by the way) sifts our most people who are not serious about doing the lease option.