Finding deals - do you solely rely on realtor or look for deals yourself?

[Kevin Zh]

tl;dr: realtor only seems to only respond for deals he sends now. Is this normal or should I look for new more communicative realtor?

I'm a new long distance investor based on the east coast with one SFH in the midwest. So far I've only really worked with one realtor and one team so bear with me if this is a noob question.

The team I work with has a email list for investors where they send deals, but lately they've been drying up. Due to this, I've been taking a look on zillow here and there. Here's the things I verify quickly:

• - price/rent ratio based on estimated rent on rentcast
• - crime heatmap
• - general research of the area

If those check out and I feel I can cash flow, I then email my realtor to get his thoughts on neighborhood, etc.... My thinking is I'd get his opinion and if neighborhood checks out in his mind I'd verify rent with my PM and go into contract.

My realtor was much more responsive a year ago, but now seems to only reply to listings they send out to the investors email list.

My question is, am I not doing enough due diligence on the properties before sending it to the realtor and maybe they're not good deals or do most realtors only trust what they find for you? Or is my realtor just bad at communication and I should find a new one. I've emailed my realtor clarifying what he prefers too because last year it seemed like he welcomed me finding deals that I felt were good as well.