Surprisingly, most agents are not investors in Real EstateAssess their know how of the financial aspects of the investment i.e. how well they can assess an investment property.

Look at it from a financial aspect only.

Now to focus on this aspect.

You have one side of story. landlord however will be less likely to lie to fellow landlord and I weigh landlord references over all credit reports, and tenant provided information etc. perfect credit doesn't really matter if the last landlord told me the applicant was a nitpicker, always late with rent, dirty, or [insert nightmare issue here].please be sure to reference the screening primer to make sure you have all other aspects covered:http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2011/3/31/screening-tenants-primer/

This is the one critical aspect of REI that is often not spoken about: business models and systems.

How do you determine if the swimming pool is critical to being competitive?

This is the single most important aspect of real estate investing.

The relationships you build with small banks are critical.

Sometimes common interest developments (like condo) have a special assessment on owners to pay for critical items that where unexpected or poorly planned for.

Now as for the competitive aspects, quite clearly we must be very careful to not reveal any secrets.