Are there any tricks out there that are specific to Local Results? I.e. when several companies match the keywords, how does Google decide who's displayed first, etc? Should I try to get a business address that's closest to downtown - that's easy as hell to do by registering the company at a placedowntown that has that "P.O. box with address of a suite" service.
It depends on the reviews on your listing. If you receive good number of reviews from your clients/customers, Google will give you higher position in local listing
No, I believe the only way is makes a difference here in the UK, is where your address is. On our Google listings you come up in order of your position to the city Centre. So ideally you'd have an address in the middle of the city/town that way you will come up close to the top