Ours is a red hot real estate market and there are many investors going after the same houses- sometimes, you can jump at a house, just to even GET one, and you overpay because it needs more work than anticipated.

I'm so happy to be meeting different key players in the investing industry.

These are just two ways that can help and they only take effort by going to meetings and learning the players in your area will help get you off the ground. 

I will first ask my real estate agent (who is one of the few key players on my real estate team) for an audience with his company, and ask him for recommendations if they aren't interested.

After the nasty situation I described in #3 above, I also listen much more carefully for little red flags.

On another forum, I posted a question about finding a red wire when trying to hang ceiling fans in a 50's house.That's helpful but I'm finding current on the red/white wires, not the black/ground. 

First thing I did was reset the circuit breaker, still no hot water so I hit the red reset button on the upper element.

Steve I go to the Cape every year, stay at the Red Jacket.  

Give them a call if you need some work done.The Red is the Waterproofing membrane that I put on before he started tiling...Finally after about 3 months of working on and off, getting the plumbers to work, tile guy to do his job, and us to build, paint, insulate, level and shim, we ended up with a final product which we are really proud of.

I could have sunk myself on my first deal if I hadn't had red flags go off and come here for advice.