Yes James it is a lot of work, but your mail piece will stand out from the rest and get opened, and that’s the whole idea here.I was taught this method in person about 10 years ago by guru Ron LeGrand and the inventors of the yellow letter, John & Donna MacNeil.You can check out their short intro video here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?

I will certainly connect with the Peninsula people you mentioned and would love to check out your meet up.

Also be sure to check out the blogs and podcasts.

There is an investor luncheon every Thursday at Big Daddy's at noon at the 183/Burnet location you can check out.

If you haven't yet, be sure to check out the The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing and The BiggerPockets Podcast.

I look at sales comparables and population/demographic trends, and look over the area on a map and on Google Earth.Second, I contact the local citizens with regards to the building and if possible, the previous ownership.Police Department can tell me insider's opinion and can give me a breakdown of crime in the area.Fire department - have they had any emergencies at the building recently.City Inspector - are there any outstanding violations?

For REOs, do a Google search for "Chase owned properties", "Bank of America", and "Well Fargo owned properties".

We rent to college students and don't do a credit check on them but I do a google search to see what turns up.

Check out some of the awesome spreadsheets under the BP Files section under resources.

I have networked and learned more here in one week than all the other sites combines, by that I mean twitter, FB, linked in, and google +.