hi @Vladimir Gonzalez  - generally speaking you can look online at the county clerk  records in the county which the property is located if you know the owners name or the physical address of the property. 

Recently voted in the top three places to visit world wide in a New York Times article.

And I'd bet less than 1% actually look at any demographic or economic data with the exception of the latest "Best Places to Live" article on Yahoo's homepage.Buying rentals here in California, SoCal specifically, works very well.

My two questions are how much actual physical time must I spend their so it may be considered and treated as my actual "registered" place of business by the tax man? 

I'd start by trying to find a great online forum that had tens of thousands of articles, blog posts, forum posts, experienced investors, etc, and reading everything I could!

If you haven't yet- be sure to setup some "Keyword Alerts" to get into conversation in your target area.By the way - here are my favorite articles on Wholesaling: 9 Reasons You Couldn’t Find A Buyer For Your Wholesale DealDon’t Start Wholesaling Until You Read This: Wholesale Advice from a Fix and FlipperHow to Start Wholesaling: Getting Past The Education and Into the FieldSeeya around!

Here are a couple of my favorite articles on the city if you'd like to read a little more.http://m.metrotimes.com/news/news-features/detroit-s-real-estate-market-sees-rebound-1.1580633http://www.forbes.com/sites/realtorcom/2012/06/14/detroit-real-estate-comeback-kid/http://www.mlive.com/business/detroit/index.ssf/2013/11/developing_detroit_metro_detro.html

@Andy Collins Glad you survived what could have been a serious injury.I was just reading an article about Disability Insurance for the self-employed & apparently some of the more frequent claims are from rental home owners. 

@Rick Fonseca my advice to you is make a habit of coming onto BP and reading articles, making posts and listening to pod casts.  

Don't miss The BiggerPockets Podcast - they are great for learning how others are finding success.Also - here's a couple articles you might enjoy:The 21 Best Real Estate Investing Books Ever How to Rent Your House: The Definitive Step by Step GuideHow to Be a Landlord: Ten Tips for SuccessOh - and be sure to set up some Keyword Alerts- especially for "Longmont" so you'll be notified when people mention it here in the forums.Thanks again for introducing yourself!