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 +.

Some good books for you to check out as well: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/04/14/best-real-estate-books/

Check out this NYTimes slide show regarding service animals. http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/09/29/realestate/20130929-COVERDOGS.html#1

@Reginald Hart In that case, be sure to check out the BiggerPockets PodcastsThere are quite a few episodes dedicated to wholesaling that I think you'll love.