If they are a high producing broker, they should be able to provide you with an abundance of insights related to that market.

Some lawyers will help you but the cost of the contracts will get pretty high pretty quick.

It's counter intuitive however, we find this approach to be highly effective. 

You can continue to roll over for up to 5 years.If you cannot use the charitable deduction, you can sometimes sell the properties to a high income individual who CAN use them. 

You can even make collateral withdrawals as you pay down your principal.But these are usually high interest, interest-only loans.

HML have high holding costs.  

If you can't keep control of your personal finances, you are highly unlikely to succeed in real estate investing.

I'd highly suggest coming to one of the local meetups to network with other locals that are interested in doing this.

Bandit signs are inexpensive and effective, if you're in a high traffic area.

You can also build a relationship with a good local agent and ask them to run comps for you, or in certain situations like selling a high-end home to a friend off market I’d recommend just paying for an actual appraisal.