You can search population growth, employer diversity, median income, crime rates, future development plans, population demographics, average rent compared to housing cost etc.

@Fernando Quintero I did not do a whole lot of comparison myself, but I personally use QuickBook Self Employed edition to track my RE LLC expenses. 

- I'm not aware that contractors, especially ones who are not employed, are legally prohibited from doing things like this.

Also, have any of you seen negative impacts on your house/rental when a major employer has a large lay off in the area?

Last week I put my 2 weeks in at my current employer and am planning to move into my second home.

@Chad ReidlingerYou may want to look into opening as self-directed IRA that can be invested in real estate once you transfer the former employer 401k into it.

So you can technically operate as a sole proprietor in all of your businesses and not have to worry about converting passive income into active business income if you are flipping, because only the *intended* flips will be subject to self employment tax and ordinary income.

All rail service hubs on the downtown area, and suburb-to-suburb transit options are limited to those suburbs along the rails lines.Those properties near the stations have the best values.A key consideration, of course, is the location of centers of employment.

I'm trying to boost my savings so I can get in the game quicker, when I came up with the idea of redirecting some of the funds I allocate to my 401K towards REI.Admittedly, the stock market craziness is what got me thinking, but in addition to that my employer matches up to 5% and I'm putting in 10%.

Mitch DanielsHe won't be in November's elections but this isn't any reason that we can't find people who equally employ common fiscal sense.