While poor lending practices are certainly a partial contributor of the financial crisis we're seeing, I personally believe there are more fundamental issues, such as a decrease in domestic production, low liquidity among individuals, corporate greed (and personal greed), drop-off in public educational standards, etc.While the lending rules may certainly have hastened (and concentrated) the financial crisis we're seeing, I personally believe it would have happened eventually, even without lower lending standards.So, I disagree with the statement that it "could not have happened without government intervention in the lending market."

@Marvin Song Why are we not publicly outing this company, using the strength of the community to improve the situation and more importantly, save future investors the hardship of dealing with said company?

This combined with a pathetic public transportation system is a really bad thing.Water.

I can't promise that I'll be able to publish any conculusions - BUT, I will point out some very public data about the site, and let you draw some conclusions on it:The "New Member Introductions" tab has less than 15,000 topics.BiggerPockets boasts over 218,000 members on its homepage.One may infer that under 7% of members have introduced themselves in that forum.What does that tell us about the success rate of that 7%?  

Our renter is asking for reimbursement for however much I pay for parking at public Garage until the garage door is fixed.

It's not exactly what you're looking for, but the information in your due diligence should tell you a lot about what type of tenant the prospect will be.But let's step back and think about this from afar: You can have review sites for businesses because the business is intentionally placing itself into public discourse -- I don't think you can really say the same for tenants. 

Centrally located near the shops and public transportation, and schools. check check check. 

Many public libraries and Amazon.com have lots of these books that can be helpful.

I hear "High Times" is a great gardening publication to curl up with your favorite box of Little Debbie snacks and read.

Hi Max,Not sure if this helps or not, but can you check the public records to see if the landlord has any outstanding mortgages on that property?