Driving a neighborhood and attending open houses What else am I missing, if anything?

In Your Opinion Who Puts On The Best Real Estate Conferences Every Year??? Could be a short weekend workshop, could be a business conference with tons of people or just smaller groups, who is organizing them and wher...

I think you need your boots on the ground, networking, attending city meetings, neighborhood meetings, investors meetings.   

I saw there was meetup on this yesterday in Oak Brook by the Chicago REIA that I couldn’t attend.  

To try to locate where I'd like to buy, and most importantly where I don't want to buy.While there attend a FEW real estate meetups and talk to the locals about what areas of the city are best, and any local common problems such as in Texas, possible foundation issues due to soil conditions, or earthquake bracing in California, etc...Spend the week networking and driving around with a city map.Good Luck!

I haven't attended too many meetups recently, but I am hoping to attend more this year.  

I probably would not buy the liens but would attend that class  just to learn :D))

Attend every REI group you can, build relationships with local investors and vendors...that is where you'll most likely find the knowledge, skills an money you need to make a deal happen. 

My downtown meeting went late, so I wasn't able to make it but I'm sure others were able to attend.

Make sure you attend every meetup in your area to start talking with active investors and the big players in your market.