He does this in extremely busy cities where flights get delayed and people suddenly need a place to stay, and often check Facebook for recommendations. 

Go to local Real Estate meetups and learn from people there

I believe it's due to my limited connections, and the people around me are also new here.

Am I willing to lose these people as my friends if/when a deal goes south? 

They believe putting it on the MLS will make the most sense to them.Like everyone else, we are always willing to partner with people that want to learn through experience and find more propductive ways to find deals.There is money to be made in real estate in this current economy, if you find deals that have not yet hit the MLS.

Blows my mind how many people over the past few years would laugh at 8% and be like "well I can get 18% from XYZ".

People with good credit don't cheat their way through life.

Which means I may well have been the only person foolish enough to bid on it, among the billions of people with internet access.On the other hand, the fact that the owner didn't pay taxes since 2018 is not a big red flag.

I have a few ideas based on research but I'd love to hear people's opinions. 

I live in columbus and miami about half the year both. economic activity in miami is like 20x what columbus is. net migrations by number of people are waaaaaayyyy more in miami. columbus has 10 out of the 14 growing counties in ohio. it's not just one county or city, it's the entire MSA. cool chart but definitely would never put Detroit in the same category as either.