I'd also recommend looking into going to the Black Diamond meeting in Waltham.  

My personal favorite these days is the Black Diamond meeting in Waltham, wortht he drive if you want to get in front of a bigger crowd than these other ones. 

Focus on people and undervalued sources of information, these are where you are likely to find the diamonds in the rough.

Unless it is a diamond counter top and wood floors from the petrified forest, 300k for a 800 sqft home is a scam!

 (27 and counting, with 6,000 + new units coming on the market).http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/blog/2015/04/27...Not to say you can't ever do well with a condo down here, but it will have to be that diamond in the rough.To John's second point, you can do very well with the BRRRR strategy.  

Besides those I would highly recommend going to the Black Diamond meeting in Waltham (2nd location in Worcester).  

Black Diamond in Worcester

For the garage, look into getting a floor buffer with diamond encrusted type of sand paper.I flipped a house where the previous owners had 19(!!!)

, however Toronto obviously has a much larger population (finding that diamond in the rough could be easier possibly).What would you do if you were in my position?

Going more North the Black Diamond meeting is excellent.