There is agentsonline.net but that is for more residential agents.Many times commercial brokers and agents converse over the phone looking for deals, doing deals together, attending conferences together to make connections.When I say asset classes and specialize I belong to ICSC ( International Council of Shopping Centers).

I grew up going to the Hulen mall and these days do my shopping at Trader Joe's on Hulen.  

I'm excited to be in a local market when it appears that prices aren't crazily high and, judging by the new place I've rented the rental prices are quite high compared to the buying price (when comparing to London or Australia of course) so there should be some decent yields out there.I'm new to property in general also so have been blitzing through some podcasts and books and hope to have better knowledge by the time my credit rating has a chance to build over a year or so.In addition to the above education it would great to get some Houston specific information so if anyone can share some good links for reading up, any charts/graphs of historic house prices, area guide links, work out if prices/yields here are currently perceived to be high/low or anything in general you feel would be a help.Differences for me coming from the UK would be that public transport links are very important when deciding where to invest, where as here it doesn't seem to have much relevance as everyone drives but I imagine other fundamentals like Jobs, schools, shops, non-flood areas are still as important.

However I can not imagine it takes that kind of money to open for example a local sandwich or ice cream shop in a city where rent would be say $2500 - $4000 on average for prime locations, in my size requiremnts. 

I recently shopped local banks and they asked for 2 year tax returns and bank statements in lieu of W2s.

@Deanna McCormick your just a 1 stop shop!!!

My servicing company just closed shop, and was trying to get a feel for what people are now using, good or bad.  

As of now, my strategy consists of searching Lafayette, and its adjacent parish's, sheriff sales, sorting for properties by zip code, and heading to the clerk of courts office to check for liens and any useful mortgage information on the sorted foreclosures.

Shopping for REI properties is not like going to the bigbox stores and picking items off the shelf. 

I'm also invested in many rentals and I currently am working in the Grimsby area with another investor it's only about a 20 minute drive from my place and I learn the area quite well be happy to sit down for coffee with you anytime to talk shop.