Then a few months after that, it was sold to someone who bought it at $310K, the market price.

But he gave me great tools and information, as well as taking a lot of time to let me pick his brain. 

But as a buyer... makes no sense to ask the LA to be your agent too...I just lost out on a property even though my no contingency cash offer was $10k higher than what the property sold for.

If you sold all 7 properties for $900K, you could probably get yourself into a $3M+ multi-family property and pay no capital gains taxes.

The only problem is they sold their business (her grandpa and dad) and buy houses for cash only.

Transfer around with low interest offers if you can, like Stephanie mentions.In '07 I got a cash-out refi for $106k and sold it last year for $145k. 

Are there any tools investors use to select neighborhoods? 

I'm buying it at $150,850 (motivated seller) and 4 years ago it sold for $187,500.

There are pros and cons to both of these tools, and quite a few benefits to using them together for the strongest asset protection plan possible.

I am looking at a piece of land that has the potential to be turned into conservation land and sold as mitigation land credits to developers in the area.