In the discovery phase the franchise director usually gives names and the phone of local franchisees you can call to hear the good and bad of owning one.      

It is extremely difficult to get proficient in an area without having trustworthy "boots on the ground". 

@Darrell Shepherd  You might consider a simple and cheap alarm system with a circuit connected to the A/C unit that uses the ground wire from the unit, and/or the copper tubing that carries the coolant, as part of it's circuit.

Note: tell both the Realtor and the property managers up front that you are in the investigation phase and are not “buying” anything on this trip.

I'm ripe to drop and hit the ground running.

A lot depends on carrying costs; in my area very few prospects venture out when there is snow or ice on the ground. 

We had so much snow on the ground that not many people were out there looking at properties.

I seem to be having a localized impact, as I have noticed some new signs going up about 10 feet off the ground on power poles.These signs look trashy and degrade the neighborhood.

So I decided to leverage my knowledge in construciton and start building a foundation on the developer side and accepted a position as a Project Manager for construction of ground up Healthcare facilities.I am currently on the fence of jumping head first into the bigger pockets community to start flipping homes.  

I would have allowed the pup but would have laid ground rules.So pup comes, pup goes.