Share Better (http://www.sharebetter.org/) is spending $3 million on a campaign (in a format similar to AirBnB's marketing campaign) that highlights illegal conversions and evictions, as well as quality of life issues for residents living near short-term rental units.

As important as the money is, I also want to invest in an area I know will grow and do well for a long time and has good quality tenants.

I'm a visual person so the seminar is a good STARTING point to gauge a baseline with of what you know vs don't know.5.

Well,  never heard of them but the quality of their site is poor at best and looking at the homes for rent, they look super low income which translates to = long-term failure to whomever owns these homes. 

One of their points is that they will guide you on how to create credibility with HedgeFunds they currently do business with in order to get better quality notes that one can find via internet sites or servicers like fciexchange.com (does that smell like an upsell for the future?)

That way you can get either an inspector and/or a trusted, high-quality contractor to evaluate the property. 

I could find high quality paper at 8% no problem.  

. :) ).As I'm sure you know you gave a bit of a range in the quality and desirability of areas, as well as long term development plays, but they all have merit.  

Account Closed Knowing your market is critical to whether you are an investor or a speculator.Here is the short list of what you need to know:*  Rents*  Sales comps*  Taxes*  DOM*  Profit potential  (formula)*  Seller's or Buyer's market*  Market saturation*  Interest and availability of tenants and/or buyers*  Cost of homes for sale (not the same as sales comps)*  Quality of neighborhood (stats, but eyeball test works even better when you inspect a property)Joe VilleneuveREcapSystemA2REIC

Every lead is not something you can turn into business, the quality of your leads has much to do with that but you need to recognize what fits your skill level and abilities to manage or work the leads.