The best way to get started is just put your area in the search box and work through all thevm threads. Make a list of 6 or 7 you would like to visit and work down it. Even better put pins for everything on Google maps then when you get somewhere you've got all the local ones already marked.
Look through all your local news resources for/from the last few months, search for keywords like closed, closing down, shut their doors, bankruptcy, no longer trading, due to be demolished etc etc.
Youll need to do some leg work, have a drive around and look for signs of places no longer active, you can often cross reference those places with your local news. As you can't drive yet you can obviously walk, take a bike, take a train or bus, get a lift etc.
Get on Google maps on satellite view, although it won't show up newly empty places it will show up things like disused railway tunnels that can be found by tracing disused tracks across the map, buildings that have been abandoned for a year or two but not seen yet, pumping stations, quarries etc etc.
The hunt for finding somewhere to explore is a major part of the hobby that people often dismiss, the chase and research is quite often more fun than eventually getting there to find its now houses or just a burnt out empty shell not worth photographing.
