I'm not sure what everybody elses situation is, but I work full-time as an Engineer while trying to start my business.How do you full time workers find time to locate decent properties?

Its great to see all the discussions and strategies used by successful investors :)I am an software engineer by the day and dabble with real estate in the night over the last few years.

Where I am from:Originally from a tiny town in north central Illinois called Tiskilwa but now I live in the Champaign/Urbana area very close to the University of IllinoisBackground/Goals: I am a agricultural engineer and focus on off-road equipment.

I live in Alaska, employed as a locomotive engineer.

We have a Chinese surgeon friend, (husband is an engineer) & they had 6 Chinese Restuarants.

When we go to build it out, there will be permits, the city, engineers, architects, etc involved.

All was well until-The Watershed Department is refusing to sign off on our permit because they claim (It isn't) the property is in the 25-year floodplain (more on this below)Additional Details:-GIS maps and FEMA both show the property to be in the 100-year floodplain-We can get flood insurance on the property-The plans were redrawn where the base elevation is above what the city claims the 25-year plain isWe have talked to attorneys, flood engineers, etc. and we're weighing our options about how to proceed.

While all 3 these sites are essentially real estate search engines, Redfin differs from its competitors Trulia and Zillow.

Then the expenses come in for soil samples, engineering and complaince with local governments (poitical).

Just changing your search algorithm to require two upper-case letter abbreviations will help eliminate (or reduce) some of the problems.