Do some RE internet searches and see what agencies are dominant.

On the RE side, your time is most likely best spent getting to know the local players that can help find you the deals rather than driving around town looking at everything.

How much more will these companies come to dominate the virtual real estate world?

i know the big players , but i would rather have a smaller outfit or a semi-retired maintenance person . i am mostly just tired of the calls on maintenance stuff  more than anything :(

I pay someone $10/hr to do mine and 1000 takes about 6-8hrs. 

The best way to "start with wholesaling" is to bird dog for the dominant wholesaler in your area. 

Material that says otherwise is sorely out of date.Rather than dabble in wholesaling yourself, consider acting as a bird dog for the dominant wholesaler in your market.

they are lots section 8 qualified, guaranteed to be challenging. one biggest players owns land and leases the buildings back but areas near canal st where govt was going put in new off ramp. so many bld run down. 

Once the  players were known, some of us jumped in to defend y'all, as fortunately your reputations are so good it was somewhere between unlikely and inconceivable that you were at fault.

In addition to hard data, here are the qualitative factors that I am considering: - job diversity (I don't want a single industry to dominate the job market)- landlord/tenant laws (this is one of the top reasons I can no longer invest in the Bay Area)- personal advantage (I'm still trying to find mine.