What is the best/quickest way to identify the ins and outs of various neighborhoods, pricing, trends, etc.?  

Sacramento also has a great rental market, and was just selected by Realtor.com to become the 4th hottest metro market in the US for 2017.

The trends are still solid w/MF as far as everything I read.  

Too much money, too much risk, and too little reward if you ask me.Sacramento -- The Roseville/Sacramento area was just selected by Realtor.com to become the #4 hottest metro area in the nation in 2017.

It's useful, when evaluating the margin on a property, keeping an eye on trends in target area, and generally being knowledgeable about the market.

They are predicting that the nationwide market will slow down next year, but the hottest markets on the coasts are going to "keep blazing." 

I know knowledge is power and information is valuable (money) but it just seems that it is part of the trend not having good faith to help out your fellow man that you have to charge for a phone number.

Do you have any concerns about declining population trends or other negative or neutral economic indicators (regional net job creation)?

Craigslist performs this service for free.Agents/brokers perform a service by actively marketing a property, under state license and with some levels of ethics standards and accountability.Wholesalers work some form of market price arbitrageSpeculators are not investors but add value by exploiting time, trend, utility, functionality, location or scarcity.I think buyers and sellers will be equally sceptical of any vehicle for sale and transfer that they fo not understand.

I've noticed this trend of using fax machine for wiring instruction being used by banks as well as attorneys.