Recently there has been lot of press coverage on big investors buying rented single family homes in bulk. 100 to 1000.

After reading tens of thousands of posts on BP, reading/writing blogs, speaking at national conferences, practicing for going on 12 years in the real world, etc. my main advice is to learn how to raise money.  

@Luke Calhoun mentioned the area REIA network meetings that you should consider attending.I second that and make mention of two that you should consider. (1) The weekly Thursday Mastermind luncheon at Big Daddies is always a great one for networking > http://www.meetup.com/REALESTATEinvestormastermind... . (2) Several of us local BPers host the Central Austin Real Estate Meetup the second Wednesday of each month @ 10 AM, Mercury Mambo Conference Room, Second Floor  > https://www.facebook.com/groups/616101995182672/Come join us when your schedule permits!

Some would conclude from that that the GFCI is not protecting from ground faults, but pressing the test button on the GFCI is the only reliable test method. 

I feel like places like Vallejo/Stockton are long term bets... for the short term one might see some appreciation but they're a lot more sensitive to market corrections so one has to be prepared for that.Speaking of corrections, someone at the Sacramento RE conference last year mentioned that the biggest signal if a neighborhood will retain its value during a downturn are those with healthy mature trees.

I spoke to a Canadian investor at a conference and he said that he was getting .8% return on his rental properties.

Make a connection with them and then follow up after the conference.

This is in addition to being in a group of similarly motivated people, getting educated via videos, conference calls and in-person classes, and also having direct access to Mark who has the experience.

There were 2 buses full of RWN conference attendees. 

As a software developer, I met some Intuit people at a recent conference, and they admitted (very off the record) that Mint is an afterthought at Intuit.